EAM S Jaishankar Meets Victoria Nuland, US Under Secretary Of State For Political Affairs

Today External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a meeting with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland. In the meeting they discussed the Indo-Pacific region, ways to expand bilateral ties and the crisis in Ukraine.

The meeting comes a day after delegation-level talks between Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Nuland. Nuland is on a three-nation tour of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the Indian subcontinent.

A statement issued after the Shringla-Nuland talks held under the framework of India-US Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) had said both sides looked forward to the India-US 2+2 ministerial meeting.

The 2+2 defence and foreign ministerial talks were originally slated to be held in November.

Victoria Nuland has recently been in spotlight due to her admission that the US does indeed have level-3 bio-labs in Ukraine. After her statement the US government had to issue a clarification that these are biolabs and not bioweapon facilities. Questions about the nature of research going on in these labs remain.

According to some reports she also played a significant role in the 2014 Maidan 'revolution' of Ukraine. There are leaked audio recordings of her conversation which indicate that the US was involved in this 2014 'revolution'.

(With inputs from PTI)