Democracies are 'works in progress', says Blinken on first trip to India

US Secretary of State's trip comes as his government vows to challenge what it describes as China's aggression.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off his first official visit to India Wednesday, highlighting the two nations’ close ties but also noting the democracies were “works in progress” -- a guarded reference to the issue of discrimination against minorities in both countries.
 

Blinken is scheduled to meet his counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, where India’s border tensions with China, the growing security crisis in Afghanistan triggered by the impending final US troop withdrawal and Covid-19 are likely to be high on the agenda.

“The Indian people