EAM Jaishankar discusses strengthening strategic partnership with British Foreign Secretary

United Nations, Sep 26 (IANS) External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy discussed on Wednesday strengthening their countries' strategic partnership, as India's top diplomat continued his round of meetings with leaders at the General Assembly's high-level meeting.
 

EAM Jaishankar wrote on X after their meeting, "Carried forward our conversations on strengthening the India-Britain Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP)" and "also discussed the conflict in Ukraine".

The CSP covers a wide range of sectors, including trade and investment, defence and security, technology, science, innovation, and people-to-people relations, and is augmented by a 2030 roadmap for meeting the goals, including those for a more secure Indian Ocean Region and Indo-Pacific.

EAM Jaishankar had sit-down meetings with some leaders and quick encounters with others in the halls of the UN building bustling with leaders at various levels.

He said on X that he and Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo discussed manufacturing and technology cooperation and exchanged views on Ukraine.

From the countries that will be taking their seats on the Security Council as elected members, he met with the Foreign Ministers Giorgos Gerapetritis of Greece and Ahmed Fiqi of Somalia.

The Indian External Affairs Minister posted on X that with Giorgos, "our conversation was focused on shipping, energy, mobility, connectivity, and defence."

His talks with Fiqi focused on "enhancing our cooperation in health, education, training and capacity building," EAM Jaishankar said on X.

He also had a brief encounter with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director-general of the World Trade Organisation, which came in for criticism when he spoke late at the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting.

Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla said on X that he had a "fruitful" meeting with EAM Jaishankar at which they reviewed "the excellent state of bilateral relations".

"I reiterated Cuba's interest in continuing to expand economic-commercial and cooperation ties," he added.

EAM Jaishankar was more specific, writing on X, "Discussed our cooperation in health and food security, as well as in training and capacity development."

He described his meeting with Switzerland Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis as a "good to follow-up" to their recent meeting in Geneva.

At that meeting they had focused "on leveraging the Free Trade Agreement between India and EFTA States (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Principality of Liechtenstein) to boost trade and investments," according to the External Affairs Ministry.

Among others he met were Deputy UN Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, Deputy Prime Ministers Winston Peters of New Zealand and Murat Nurtleu of Kazakhstan, and Foreign Ministers Cho Tae-yul of South Korea and Nasser Bourita of Morocco.

--IANS

al/khz