EAM Jaishankar meets UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres here on Tuesday in their first face-to-face interaction since India entered the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member in January this year.

Jaishankar was accompanied by India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti and Deputy Permanent Representative Ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu as he arrived at the UN Headquarters to meet the UN chief.

The meeting scheduled at 10 am (local time) lasted almost an hour.

Jaishankar arrived in New York on Sunday evening on his first visit to the US after India entered the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member in January this year. India will assume Presidency of the Council in August.

On Monday, Jaishankar met officials and diplomats from India’s Permanent Mission to the UN.

"A productive strategy session with @ambtstirumurti and our UN team in New York @IndiaUNNewYork. Confident that India will continue to shape the big debates of our times,” Jaishankar tweeted Monday after the meeting.

From New York, Jaishankar will travel to Washington where he is expected to meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

A State Department spokesperson said Blinken and Jaishankar would discuss a wide range of issues, including COVID-19, efforts to strengthen Indo-Pacific cooperation through the Quad, enhanced UN and multilateral cooperation.

"The Secretary looks forward to meeting Minister Jaishankar during his visit, and to discussing a broad range of issues, including COVID-19 relief, efforts to strengthen Indo-Pacific cooperation through the Quad, enhanced UN and multilateral cooperation, and a range of other shared regional security and economic priorities,” the spokesperson said.

In addition to meeting his counterpart, Jaishankar is scheduled to meet US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, other senior officials of the Biden Administration, influential lawmakers, think-tanks, leaders of the corporate sector and members of the Indian American community.

Neither the State Department nor the Ministry of External Affairs have announced the day and timing of the Jaishankar-Blinken meeting.

Blinken on Monday left for a quick trip to the Middle East as part of the efforts of the Biden Administration’s peace process in the region. PTI YAS ZH AKJ ZH ZH