Jaishankar to meet US Secretary of State Rubio in New York on Monday amid tariff, H-1B visa concerns
New York (PTI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio here on Monday for bilateral discussions, as the high-level 80th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) kicks in.
This will be the first face-to-face meeting between Rubio and Jaishankar following President Donald Trump's imposition of an additional 25 per cent tariff on India for Delhi's purchases of Russian oil, taking the total levies imposed on India by the Trump White House to 50 per cent.
According to the daily schedule issued by the State Department on Sunday, Rubio will meet Jaishankar in New York City on Monday morning.
They had last met in July in Washington DC for the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting. The bilateral meeting comes on the same day India and the US will hold discussions towards achieving an early conclusion of a trade agreement.
A delegation led by Union Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal will meet with the US side on Monday in the city. "The delegation plans to take forward the discussions with a view to achieving early conclusion of a mutually beneficial Trade Agreement," the Ministry of Commerce and Industry had said in a statement.
The statement added that during the last visit of the team of officials from the office of the United States Trade Representative to India on September 16, positive discussions were held on various aspects of the trade deal, and it was decided to intensify efforts in this regard.
Jaishankar arrived in New York on Sunday for the high-level UNGA week, commencing his engagements with a bilateral meeting with the Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Theresa P. Lazaro.
"We followed up on the recent State Visit of President @bongbongmarcos to India. Also discussed our cooperation in the UN and the Indo-Pacific region,” the external affairs minister said on X.
According to a daily schedule issued by the State Department on Sunday, Rubio will meet Jaishankar in New York City on Monday morning for a bilateral meeting.
Lazaro said it was a pleasure to meet Jaishankar again after President Bongbong Marcos's "successful" state visit to India in August. "Our discussion today reaffirms our two countries’ commitment as Strategic Partners to actively develop cooperation in political, defence and security, the maritime domain, etc," she said.
Jaishankar will hold a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings during the week on the sidelines of the high-level UNGA session and will deliver the national statement at the General Debate on September 27 from the iconic green UNGA podium.
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Odisha: Normalcy returns to violence-hit Malkangiri; internet services fully restored
Malkangiri (PTI): Normalcy returned to Odisha’s Malkangiri district on Monday, nearly a week after around 200 villages were damaged in violent clashes in a village, with the district administration fully restoring internet services, a senior official said.
Additional District Magistrate Bedabar Pradhan said internet services, suspended across the district on December 8 to curb the spread of rumours and misinformation following the clashes, were restored after the situation improved.
The suspension had been extended in phases till 12 noon on Monday.
The administration also withdrew prohibitory orders imposed under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita within a 10-km radius of MV-26 village, where arson incidents were reported on December 7 and December 8.
Though the violence was confined to two villages, tension had gripped the entire district, as the incident took the form of a clash between local tribals and Bengali settlers following the recovery of a headless body of a woman on December 4, officials said.
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The violence broke out after residents of Rakhelguda village allegedly set ablaze several houses belonging to Bengali residents, forcing hundreds to flee. The headless body of Lake Podiami (51), a woman from the Koya tribe, was recovered from the banks of the Poteru river on December 4, while her head was found six days later at a location about 15 km away.
Officials said the district administration held several rounds of discussions with representatives of the tribal and Bengali communities, following which both sides agreed to maintain peace.
Relief and rehabilitation work has since been launched at MV-26 village, with preliminary assessment pegging property damage at around Rs 3.8 crore.
A two-member ministerial team headed by Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo visited the affected village, interacted with officials and locals, and submitted a report to the chief minister.
So far, 18 people have been arrested in connection with the violence, the officials said, adding that despite the withdrawal of prohibitory orders and restoration of internet services, security forces, including BSF and CRPF personnel, continue to be deployed to prevent any untoward incident.
On Sunday, Nabarangpur MP Balabhadra Majhi visited MV-26 and neighbouring Rakhelguda villages, and held discussions with members of both communities as part of efforts to rebuild confidence and restore peace.
More than two lakh Bengali-speaking Bangladeshis were rehabilitated by the Centre in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts in 1968, and they currently reside in 124 villages of Malkangiri.
