US NSA Jake Sullivan Visits India On Jan 5-6 Talks On Chinese Dams On The Agenda

(MENAFN- Live Mint) US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, will visit India on January 5 and 6 to meet his counterpart Ajit Doval and other top government officials for a final round of talks with them on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues, the White House said on Friday.

Sullivan is also expected to meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar
in the last high-profile visit to India by an official of the outgoing Biden administration in the United States. The two leaders met in Washington DC last month.

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Sullivan's visit will include a speech at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi in which he will stress that the outgoing administration sees the US partnership with India as central to its regional and global priorities, and one with support from both major political parties.

Sullivan's visit is expected to include discussions with Indian counterparts about the impact of Chinese dams a senior US official was quoted as saying by a report in Reuters.

Washington and its Western allies have long viewed India as a counter to China's rising influence in Asia and beyond, the report said.

"We have certainly seen in many places in the Indo-Pacific that upstream dams that the Chinese have created, including in the Mekong region, can have really potentially damaging environmental but also climate impacts on downstream countries," the unnamed official old Reuters.

Sullivan, 48, was the youngest national security advisor when President Joe Bide appointed him on January 20, 2021. He would be succeeded by Congressman Michael Waltz on January 20, when Donald J Trump would be sworn in the 47th President of the United States.

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