India, UAE and France hold the first trilateral ministerial meeting in U.S.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar arrived in New York on Sunday to participate in the high-level 77th session of the U.N. General Assembly.India, the UAE and France have held their first trilateral ministerial meeting here on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly session and discussed a new and more contemporary way of doing diplomacy with a focus on “active exchange” of ideas between strategic partners and UNSC members. External Affairs Minister starts the assembly with the kick start debate .“A productive first trilateral Ministerial meeting of India-UAE-France. Active exchange of ideas between strategic partners and UNSC members,” Mr. Jaishankar tweeted after the meeting, hosted by the UAE on Monday, with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna.Mr. Jaishankar began his hectic diplomatic week with a series of bilateral and multilateral engagements on the sidelines of the high-level session.
The three countries, while different, are strategic partners to one another and discussions focussed on areas of commonalities and on working out how to specify and concretise these commonalities going forward, official sources said.They said the three countries are very comfortable with each other and there are many areas where potentially they could be working in a more coordinated way.Official sources said that the meeting with the Egyptian leadership was important, asserting that Egypt is absolutely on the same page as India when it comes to issues such as refocusing the world on development concerns, Global South.Describing the relationship as a big meeting of the minds, sources added that India’s economic relationship with Egypt is doing well, trade is at an all-time high and there are very strong investment interests.
In his meeting with Olta Xhaçk, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania, Jaishankar said: “Valued our close cooperation in the UN Security Council. Discussed strengthening our bilateral relationship. Exchanged views on Ukraine and energy security.” Sources said that India and Albania working together in the UN Security Council has been a good experience and the two sides want to see whether they can build on the Security Council experience and take it into a bilateral relationship.
