Jaishankar discusses terrorism, Afghanistan with U.S. officials

Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, presently on a U.S. visit, said on Friday the issues such as terrorism, Asia-Pacific and Afghanistan were discussed with senior officials of the Donald Trump administration.

While keeping the focus on U.S.-India relationship, certain other issues were also discussed.

"I would characterize our discussions this way. Obviously, a lot of was U.S.-India focus rather than other countries. But we did discuss the global strategic landscape and exchanged ideas. In a sense, we are the continuity part of this relationship. I think in the meetings with the Secretary of the State, with the national security advisor, we discussed Asia-Pacific, Afghanistan. We discussed the challenge of terrorism," said Jaishankar while addressing the media here.

While responding to a poser on new targets and ambitions, Jaishankar said the current U.S. administration looked interested in working with India in a number of areas.

"At this time a lot of it was conceptual. On the economic basket, we saw a very strong interest in growing our trade, increase in investment, in finding various ways of cooperating with each other," he said.

The Foreign Secretary held meetings with a number of senior U.S. administration officials including Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly, National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, House speaker Paul Ryan along with meetings with senior member of the Congress.

Jaishankar said a wide range of issues were discussed during these meetings. The Foreign Secretary also interacted with American business through the US-India Business Council.

He added that overall it has been a very productive visit and that the new administration has a very positive view of India and there was a lot of interest in taking this relationship forward.

He also mentioned that he extended an invitation to Tillerson and Ross to visit India at an early date, which they accepted in principal.

Jaishankar's four-day visit to the U.S. aimed at sensitising the Trump administration over India's concerns over the security of Indian nationals in the U.S. following a possible cut in H1B and L1 visas.

This is his second visit to the U.S. since the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the U.S.