[ad_1]
WASHINGTON, May 8 (PTI) – US National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan met the Saudi Crown Prince and his Indian and Emirati counterparts in Saudi Arabia, during which they discussed bilateral and regional affairs and their commitment to a more secure and prosperous world. Shared vision of interconnected Middle East India and the world.
The meeting took place in Jeddah on Sunday, the White House said.
“National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan met with Saudi Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tanu bin Zayed Al Naha in Saudi Arabia on May 7. Young and Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to advance their shared vision of a more secure and prosperous Middle East interconnected with India and the world,” the White House said in a readout of the meeting on Sunday.
“Sullivan also held bilateral meetings with Crown Prince Sheikh Tahnoon and Mr. Doval to discuss bilateral and regional matters. He looks forward to further consultations with Mr. Doval during the Quad summit in Australia later this month,” the White House said.
This is the first meeting between Doval and Sullivan since launching the ambitious India-US ICET (Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies) dialogue here in January. Sullivan is currently traveling to Saudi Arabia.
Sullivan and Crown Prince Mohammed reviewed significant progress in talks to further solidify Yemen’s now 15-month-long truce and welcomed continued UN-led efforts to end the war, among a host of other issues.
“The four representatives agreed to maintain regular consultations and to follow up on matters discussed throughout the day,” the White House said.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Monday the meeting between Sullivan and the crown prince in Jeddah.
According to the SPA report, they discussed the strategic relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States and how to strengthen it in various fields, as well as regional and international developments of mutual interest.
Separately, the crown prince held another meeting with Abu Dhabi deputy ruler Sheikh Thahnoun and India’s national security adviser Doval, which was also attended by Sullivan and the US delegation.
The SPA reported that the meeting discussed how to strengthen ties between the respective countries to promote growth and stability in the region.
Meanwhile, the Virginia-based news company Axios reported that the national security advisers of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and India will discuss a possible major joint infrastructure project to connect the Gulf and Arab states via a rail network that will It will also be connected to India’s shipping lanes through ports in the region.
The project is one of the key initiatives the White House hopes to promote in the Middle East as China’s influence in the region continues to grow, the report said. The Middle East is an important part of China’s ambitious vision of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative is a collection of development and investment initiatives that plan to link East Asia and Europe through physical infrastructure, significantly increasing China’s economic and political influence around the world.
A U.S. official has said the project will be one of many topics discussed during the visit.
The idea for the new initiative emerged during talks held over the past 18 months at another forum called I2U2, which includes the US, Israel, the UAE and India, the report quoted two sources as saying.
The forum was established in late 2021 to discuss strategic infrastructure projects in the Middle East.
“Nobody said it out loud, but it was about China from day one,” a former senior Israeli official who was directly involved in early discussions on the issue told Axios.
Israel floated the idea of ​​connecting the region by rail during last year’s I2U2 conference. Part of the idea, the former Israeli official said, was to leverage India’s expertise on such large-scale infrastructure projects.
In recent months, the Biden administration has expanded the idea of ​​Saudi Arabia’s involvement.
The initiative will include linking the Levant with Arab countries in the Gulf via a rail network that will also connect to India via Gulf seaports, the sources said.
The Indian, UAE and Saudi embassies in Washington did not respond to requests for comment, Axios said.
Sullivan hinted at the initiative in a speech Thursday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “If you don’t remember anything else from my talk, remember I2U2 because you’ll hear more about it as we move forward,” he said.
The basic concept, Sullivan added, is to link South Asia, the Middle East and the United States “in ways that advance our economics, technology and diplomacy.” He also said some projects were already underway and “we are looking at some exciting new steps and look forward to working on them in the coming months.”
In his speech, Sullivan said that one of the pillars of the Biden administration’s Middle East strategy is regional integration.
Israel is currently not participating in the initiative but could join it in the future if efforts to further normalize relations in the region progress, the sources said.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
share now
[ad_2]
Source link