appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Reuters

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel next week to India, an important partner in Washington’s efforts to counter China and in vaccine diplomacy that is hobbled by its own Covid-19 crisis.
It will be Blinken’s first visit to the world’s largest democracy as President Joe Biden’s secretary of state. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday.
Blinken will also visit Kuwait at the end of his July 26-29 trip.
Washington sees India as helping in US efforts to stand up to China’s increasingly assertive activities in Asia and beyond. Blinken’s trip will follow a visit by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to China and coincide with one to Southeast Asia by Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Is India changing its approach towards disputed border with China?
On Blinken’s agenda will be “Indo-Pacific engagement, shared regional security interests, shared democratic values, and addressing the climate crisis” as well as the response to the coronavirus pandemic, the State Department said.
Blinken is also likely to discuss plans for an in-person summit of the so-called Quad. The grouping of India, Japan, Australia and the United States is seen as a counter to China’s rising influence.
The meeting – which diplomats and others said could coincide with the late-September UN General Assembly, pandemic travel permitting – is expected to focus on ways to develop regional infrastructure in the face of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The US hosted a virtual Quad summit in March at which the countries agreed Indian drug maker Biological E Ltd would produce at least a billion coronavirus vaccine doses by the end of 2022, mainly for Southeast Asian and Pacific countries, which have seen Covid-19 surges and where Washington has been competing in vaccine diplomacy with Beijing.


However, India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, was subsequently hit by a catastrophic wave of infections and halted vaccine exports.
Washington sent raw materials for vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear to India and New Delhi expects to receive 3-4 million doses of US-made vaccines by August.
“[India] is such a critical country in the fight against Covid-19,” Blinken told MSNBC on Friday, adding that it would eventually become a vital source of vaccines to the world.
“They’re focused understandably on their own internal challenges now, but when that production engine gets fully going and can distribute again to the rest of the world, that’s going to make a big difference.”
Rick Rossow, an India expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said vaccine cooperation “has proven much trickier than diplomats would like”.
“The US and India have both found the political need to prioritise domestic availability of vaccines over any international agreement,” he said. “But today the US has a glut of doses, India needs doses, and other nations across the region hope to tap into this channel.”
As Taliban’s power grows, will India and Russia-backed military front return?
Dean Thompson, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for South and Central Asian affairs, said Blinken would also raise India’s human rights record during the trip.
Asked on a call with reporters how high on the agenda human rights would be, given a citizenship law introduced by Modi’s Hindu nationalist party that critics say discriminates against Muslims, Thompson said the US “will raise it”.
“We will continue that conversation, because we firmly believe that we have more values in common on those fronts than we don’t,” he said.
Thompson added Blinken would welcome India’s “shared commitment to peace and supporting economic development in Afghanistan”, where New Delhi has pumped in some US$3 billion since the US invasion overthrew the Taliban regime following the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“We expect that all the countries in the region have a shared interest in a stable and secure Afghanistan going forward and so we will certainly be looking at talking with our Indian partners about how we can work together to realise that goal,” Thompson said.


Meanwhile, Austin on Friday travelled to Singapore﻿ as part of a Southeast Asia trip that will also include Vietnam and the Philippines.
The defence secretary will deliver a speech in Singapore on Tuesday at an event hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, in which he plans to “make the case for the US role as a reliable partner in helping nations in the Indo-Pacific make their own choices and ‘build back better’ after Covid-19”, the think tank said.
Austin previously said at a press conference that he planned to emphasise the US commitment to the “freedom of the seas” and “make clear where we stand on some unhelpful and unfounded claims by China in the South China Sea”.
In the South China Sea – home to some of the world’s busiest sea lanes – China has in recent years built artificial islands with military infrastructure, much to the consternation of some Asean countries with overlapping territorial claims.
Additional reporting by Kyodo, AFP


Philippine pageant debate, Chinese stealth jets in Pakistan: 7 Asia highlights

South Korea cautious on blaming Iran for ship strike ahead of US-China summit

Brics doesn’t need a unified voice on Iran war to have a future

Canada labels Sikh extremism a threat while accusing India of meddling

India

Coronavirus vaccine, China top agenda as Antony Blinken visits India

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Photo: Reuters

Covid-19 vaccines: is fractional dosing a solution for supply-short Southeast Asia?

An Indonesian health worker administers a dose of the Sinovac vaccine at Sam Po Kong Temple in Semarang, Central Java. Photo: Bloomberg

Will Nepal’s new ‘pro-India’ prime minister hit reset on its China ties?

Nepal's newly appointed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, centre, waves after winning a vote of confidence in Kathmandu on July 18. Photo: AFP

epa09340261 Nepalese police stand guard as Supporters of Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, stage a protest rally against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, in Kathmandu, Nepal, 12 July 2021. Nepal’s Supreme Court’s constitution bench led by chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana issued a ruling stating that President Bidya Devi Bhandari's decision to dissolve the House upon a recommendation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was unconstitutional. And also issued an interim order to reinstate the House of Representatives. EPA-EFE/NARENDRA SHRESTHA

(191013) -- KATHMANDU, Oct. 13, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli in Kathmandu, Nepal, Oct. 13, 2019. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

News

Asia

South Asia

US Secretary of State to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi
Blinken is also likely to discuss plans for an in-person summit of the Quad leaders


US Secretary of State to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi.


Coronavirus vaccine, China top agenda as Antony Blinken visits India

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}US Secretary of State to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi Blinken is also likely to discuss plans for an in-person summit of the Quad leaders

US Secretary of State to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi

Blinken is also likely to discuss plans for an in-person summit of the Quad leaders