The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will pay a two-day visit to India next week on July 27-28 to discuss a range of issues including the situation in Afghanistan, and Quad vaccine diplomacy. Human rights and democracy issues will also be raised, a top US official said.
On Friday, while responding to a question on how significantly human rights will feature in the agenda, Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Dean Thompson said, “With respect to the human rights and democracy question, yes, you’re right; I will tell you that we will raise it, and we will continue that conversation, because we firmly believe that we have more values in common on those fronts than we don’t. And we believe India is going to be a really important part of continuing those conversations and building strong efforts on those fronts in partnership as we go forward."
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), announcing the visit, said Blinken will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on July 28.
A statement by the US State Department said Blinken will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.