S Jaishankar meets Mike Pompeo, discusses India's energy interests, global terrorism with US Secretary of State

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar discussed a host of issues on Wednesday that included India's missile defence system deal with Russia, global terrorism, H-1B visas, trade and the situation arising out of US sanctions on buying oil from Iran."We have a certain perspective on Iran. Both of us came out better informed on the situation in Iran. Secretary Pompeo understands our energy interests and the contribution of the Gulf region to global crude exports," said Jaishankar post meet with Pompeo.Talking about US-Iran issues, S Jaishankar said, "We discussed the situation in the Gulf, I shared our interests and concerns with Secretary Pompeo, energy security is part of it but there are other concerns as well about diaspora, regional security and trade."He confirmed that Chabahar did not come up in the talks because India did not consider it an "outstanding" concern at the moment.Commenting on the strategic partnership between US and India, Jaishankar said: "India and the United States have a strategic partnership and that is actually based on deep and broad convergence which has been steadily growing over last many years."[caption id="attachment_6742691" align="alignleft" width="380"]

File image of S Jaishankar. ANI[/caption]The external affairs minister appreciated the contribution of Donald Trump's administration in dealing with cross-border terrorism. "We discussed a number of bilateral and global issues, on terrorism. I took the opportunity to express our appreciation for the strong support that we have received from the Trump administration, what we say is really zero tolerance for cross border terrorism.""Both as countries and as Foreign Ministers, harmonising our interests and our views, that's really the task of diplomacy. Obviously from time to time in any relationship, specific issues will arise and I think we have discussed many of those issues," Jaishankar said.Claiming that the United States and India are more than 'just' bilateral partners, Pompeo said that their partnership was beginning to scale new heights, "including our defense corporation and our common vision for free and open Indo-Pacific".After concluded their discussions, Jaishankar said that he wanted Indo-Pacific to stand for "peace, security, stability and prosperity". "We are looking at a landscape where a number of independent players work together for what they believe to be global good," the external affairs minister said.On Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) issue, Jaishankar said, "We have many relationships with many countries, many of them are of some standing. They have a history. We will do what is in our national interest."Arriving late on Tuesday for a two-day visit, Pompeo's visit marked the third visit of a US Secretary of State to India during the Trump administration. After his India visit from 25 to 27 June, Pompeo will travel to Japan to attend the G-20 Summit with Trump. With inputs from ANI