US secretary of state Antony Blinken was interviewed by Indrani Bagchi from Times Of India, on the Quad, the future of Afghanistan and the US-India priorities.
When asked about the Quad and the accomplishment with working groups, Blinken said, “We had the first ever leaders level meeting of the quad. That was in and of itself, very significant, because it just underscored the importance that the four countries India, the United States, Japan, and Australia attach to the quad. And what we’ve achieved already is bringing together four like-minded democracies in common purpose to deal with some of the most important problems and challenges facing our countries and in fact, facing the region, and even the world starting with Covid-19. And a commitment to work together to finance, produce and distribute millions of vaccines.”
On the topic of digital services agreement among countries by the US, Blinken said, “We’re doing work in a wide variety of areas to include not just Covid-19, on the climate crisis, on infrastructure, on maritime security, as well as on emerging technologies. And that includes the digital space.”
Also read: Antony Blinken: US, India must work against threats to democracy
When asked if the era of cooperation with China is over, he said, “No. I think the relationship has different elements in it. Cooperation remains one of them, because on some issues it’s profoundly in our mutual interest to cooperate — climate may be the best example. — climate may be the best example. That’s an issue that is important to all of us.”
On the question of Pakistan continuing to support the Taliban, Blinken was asked if we will see the same effect in Afghanistan today that we saw for the last 20 years, on this he said, “Pakistan has a vital role to play in using its influence with the Taliban, to do whatever it can to make sure that the Taliban does not seek to take the country by force.”
When asked regarding the US Presidential visit to India, he said, “I can’t put a date on it. But I know that President Biden will very much look forward to visiting India, and similarly to having Prime Minister Modi in the United States. But no date yet.”
For the full interview, read: Beijing acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad’: Antony Blinken
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