New Delhi [India], February 19 (ANI): The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs Chairman Shashi Tharoor said that the committee members had a “very good briefing” from Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on current foreign policy developments on Wednesday. He said that most of the discussion was on the US due to the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, DC.
Speaking to ANI, Tharoor said that every question regarding the ties between India and US in the context of PM Modi’s visit to Washington, DC was asked by the committee members and the Foreign Secretary gave all the necessary answers. He stated that the recent visit of Qatar Emir to India, PM Modi’s visit to France and other issues were deferred to later meeting.
Following the meeting, he said, “Today we had a very good briefing from the Foreign Secretary. It was on current foreign policy developments. But, obviously most of the discussion was on the US because of the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Washington. And a very thorough briefing was had with the members asking a lot of questions. I am not at liberty to tell you what was covered but I can certainly say that no stone was left unturned. Every question that you can imagine to do with the Indo-US relationship in the context of the Prime Minister’s visit was raised, discussed and the Foreign Secretary gave all the necessary answers.”
“As a result of this, his briefings on other matters of contemporary interest like Bangladesh on which the committee has to write a report, the recent visit of the Emir of Qatar, the visit by the Prime Minister to France and so on will be deferred to a later meeting. So, that was how detailed the discussion was on the US today. But I think it’s been very good and I think that the participation and the quality of the discussions testifies to the hard work being put in by the committee members on the issues facing our country’s foreign policy,” he added.
The meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee was held in Samvidhan Sadan on Wednesday. Tharoor said that it is a closed door meeting and they don’t talk in detail about anything that was discussed during the meeting.
On being asked about his response on Trump administration stopping funding, Shashi Tharoor said, “I have no comment to make and this is a closed door meeting and we don’t talk in detail about anything that went on. All I can say is that the discussions were thorough, a lot of ground was covered and I think that this is an important process of ongoing dialogue between the ministry and the MPs.”
PM Modi was on a two-day visit to US from February 12-13. During the visit, PM Modi held a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday. The two leaders shared a hug as Trump welcomed PM Modi at the White House on Thursday.
This was PM Modi’s first visit to the United States since Trump assumed office for the second term on January 20. PM Modi is among the first few world leaders to visit the United States following the inauguration of President Trump and has been invited to visit the US within barely three weeks of the new administration.
Apart from meeting Trump, PM Modi held bilateral meetings with US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Indian-origin entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard. (ANI)
