Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will visit from February 28 to March 4
Indian Foreign Secretary of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is scheduled to visit the United States from February 28 to March 4. Among major issues on agenda are India’s concerns over an apparent crackdown on H-1B visas, killing of Indian national Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Kansas and a possible visit by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the next few months.
This would be Jaishankar’s third visit to the US since the US presidential elections in November last year.
Jaishankar will meet with the Under-Secretary of State (political affairs) Thomas Shannon and key officials in the Trump administration, The Indian Express reported. The Indian diplomat is expected to hold talks on important international issues with the Trump administration. Immigration would be one, it said.
On January 31, shortly after a bill was moved to double the salary qualifications required for H-1B immigrants, of which Indians constitute 60-70 percent, the country’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement, saying: “India’s interests and concerns have been conveyed to both the U.S. administration and the U.S. Congress at senior levels.â€
Prime Minster Modi, too, conveyed these concerns when a large US delegation that visited India last week. These fears have adversely hit India’s IT industry.
Indian IT stocks dropped $7.4 billion in market value last month and 9 percent of their share value in the aftermath of the introduction of the H-1B legislation, The Hindu reported.
Jaishankar would also take-up the killing of Indian national Kuchibhotla with the Trump administration during his visit. Kuchibhotla was shot dead by a former US Navy veteran in an apparent hate crime.
The diplomat is expected to raise concern over the safety of Indian workers in the US. Furthermore, Jaishankar would apprise his US counterparts of the importance of skilled Indian workforce in the American IT industry.
(This post has been updated.)