Dependence on Russian protection gear not lack of effort from India: Jaishankar

Jaishankar instructed Indian-Americans right here throughout an interactive dialogue with them organized by the US India Friendship Council and Foundation, “One of the changes in our relationship has really been defense cooperation, which has really come to this current form in the last 15 years. ” For India and the Indian Diaspora Studies.

“For the next 40 years from 1965, there was no US defense equipment for India. In fact, this was a period when Indo-Soviet, Indo-Russian relations became very strong,” he mentioned.

“It was not because of lack of effort on the part of India. I can confirm this myself. I have my relatives, my father, my grandfather, they have worked with the Ministry of Defence. So, I know firsthand what great efforts were made in those years to try to convince America that it is in American interest to have a strong, united, independent, prosperous India,” Jaishankar mentioned.

“At that time, they didn’t succeed, maybe the state of the world was like that,” he mentioned. “The change that began was actually the nuclear deal that removed a huge hurdle to move forward and then really took the relationship to a new level that needed leadership in India,” he mentioned. was not.

“It takes two hands to clap. It was not just that all the problems are on the American side, they were traveling on the Indian side as well,” he mentioned.

“So we’ve got to deal with the establishments on our aspect as effectively. I feel the connection as we speak is on a really totally different stage. We have the potential to work collectively in lots of extra areas, particularly within the safety sector. Some of our main workout routines are with the US army. We fly a number of American plane as we speak, the C17,” the minister mentioned.

Very optimistic on the way forward for India-US relations, he mentioned: “I think there are really deep convergences that will keep it going for many, many years.”