United Nations, (Asian independent) India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar began his whirlwind diplomacy here on Monday with a meeting with the head of the Latin American and Caribbean group and geared up for meetings with seven Foreign Ministers.
Argentina’s Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, who is the President pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), was the first on Jaishankar’s schedule.
At their meeting, they reviewed India-CELAC cooperation and agreed to work closely on Covid pandemic economic recovery on trade, commerce, agriculture, food and energy security, health, vaccine production and logistics, according to India’s External Affairs Ministry.
Also at the meeting were Foreign Ministers Mario Adolfo Bucaro Flores of Guatemala and Amery Browne of Trinidad and Tobago.
Jaishankar, in a tweet, thanked them “for ideas that we will take forward together” in an area where India has boosted its diplomacy.
He later met Foreign Ministers Olta Xhacka of Albania and Ian Borg of Malta during his morning schedule.
Jaishankar is to meet with General Assembly President Csaba Korisi this evening.
Before that, he will hold a trilateral meeting with his UAE and French counterparts, Zayed Al Nahyan and Catherine Colonna, respectively, in an emerging cooperative arrangement of the three countries.
In July, officials from the foreign ministries of the three countries met to discuss cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, regional connectivity, multilateral cooperation, innovation and startups, and supply chain resilience.
In his afternoon schedule, Jaishankar is to meet bilaterally with al Nahyan and Foreign Ministers Sameh Shoukry of Egypt, Retno Marsudi of Indonesia, and Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, of Cuba, and Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, who also holds the foreign ministry portfolio.
