The US Principal Deputy National Security Advisor, Jonathan Finer, finds himself in the country’s capital meeting high-level officials. Finer met with Deputy National Security Advisor Vikram Misri, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra on December 4.
The backdrop of this meeting is the indictment released by the Department of Justice alleging a Bhartiya national, Nikhil Gupta, over the planned assassination of Khalistani separatists wanted by Bharat including the Sikhs for Justice leader and US national, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The investigation of this reveal was carried out by an undercover US Law Enforcement official who posed himself as a hitman. The indictment by the Department of Justice pinned the plot of killing another Khalistani leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Canada in June, to Gupta’s name.
This meeting marked the first publicly acknowledged contact between a senior US security official and the Bharat leadership since the US indictment last week about Gupta was released. Finer’s visit to the External Affairs Ministry and the following consultations among the officials was narrated as a follow-up to US NSA Jake Sullivan’s visit to Bharat in June and Doval’s trip to the US in January, by a readout. “Good to meet Principal Deputy NSA of the US Jon Finer this afternoon. Useful exchange of views on the global situation. Discussed taking our bilateral cooperation forward,” Jaishankar posted on X after his meeting with the American official, without giving details.
During the consultations, Misri and Finer went over key bilateral issues and discussed views on regional and global developments, according to the External Affairs Ministry’s readout. Misri and Finer also undertook the first comprehensive mid-term review of the Bharat-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) after the first meeting led by the two NSAs in Washington in January. “They took stock of progress made in building technology value chains under the framework of iCET,” the readout said.
The two officials seemed satiated over the ongoing collaboration in areas such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum and high-performance computing, defence innovation, space, and advanced telecommunications through interaction between the governments, industry, academia and other stakeholders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden launched iCET in May 2022 to facilitate cooperation in new and emerging technologies. The mechanism is jointly led by Bharat’s National Security Council Secretariat and the US National Security Council.
Misri and Finer reiterated their commitment to fulfilling the vision of Modi and Biden for elevating the bilateral strategic partnership and agreed to broaden iCET’s scope to include biotechnology, technologies for processing critical minerals and rare earths, digital connectivity and digital public infrastructure, and advanced materials, the readout said. “They also affirmed the importance of easing regulations to facilitate high-tech collaborations, and transfer of technology. Their discussions served to highlight the immense potential to tap synergies between their domestic initiatives and boost the competitiveness of industry in both countries,” the readout added.
Bharat had set up a high-level Committee of Enquiry to investigate the allegations of a conspiracy to kill Pannun. Finer, in the recent meeting was seen acknowledging this step of Bharat. New Delhi last week described the indictment filed against Nikhil Gupta in a US federal court in Manhattan as a “matter of concern” and said that follow-up action will be taken on the findings of the enquiry committee.
