External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had shared India’s perspective on Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the sidelines of Wednesday’s India-U.S. “2+2” ministerial meeting in the United States, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.
India has been maintaining that the developments regarding the new citizenship code an internal matter. This, however, did not prevent important legislative outfits in the U.S. from commenting on the new law with USCIRF calling for sanctions on Home Minister Amit Shah.
The issue, however, did not figure in the official discussion between the visiting Indian dignitaries, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Dr. Jaishankar and their U.S. counterparts.
Joint statement
In a joint statement issued on Thursday, both India and the U.S. agreed to uphold the “international rules-based order.” The statement called upon Pakistan to deny resources to cross-border terror groups.
The document also contained American acknowledgement of Indian support for the recovery of remains of those U.S. soldiers and aviators who were lost in air crashes in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh during the World War II. That apart, it stated that the ongoing consultation among the quadrilateral countries — Japan, India, Australia and the US — will promote “practical cooperation in infrastructure development, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism and regional connectivity.”
