External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday called on Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and apprised him of the recent developments related to the strategic partnership between the two countries. Jaishankar said that the discussions reflected the “full spirit of our strategic partnership”, adding that they also discussed cricket.
“Delighted to call on PM Anthony Albanese of Australia today morning in Kirribilli House in Sydney. Conveyed the personal greetings of PM Narendra Modi,” Jaishankar said in a tweet.
“Our discussions reflected the full spirit of our strategic partnership. Apprised @AlboMP of recent developments in that regard,” he added.
In another tweet, the minister wrote, “P.S.: Of course, discussed cricket :)” as India and Australia are playing the second test of the Border-Gavaskar trophy in in New Delhi.
Earlier today, Jaishankar addressed the audience at Raisina@Sydney Bussiness Breakfast where he asserted that India has overcome challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic “quite strongly.”
“During the Covid period, we responded using financially sustainable measures. In fact, a lot of reforms were carried out under the pandemic stress. There was a lot of creativity which also was implemented on the field at large scale, because of the Covid pressures.”
“In many ways, I think such decisions may have otherwise taken us much longer, ramping up our health and resources we devoted among others. I think decision on a lot of these issues were fast-forwarded,” he said.
Raisina@Sydney Bussiness Breakfast is being organized by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and India’s Observer Research Foundation (ORF) at the InterContinental Hotel in Sydney.
Jaishankar also said that the impact of Covid has been devastating on the world economy, and added, “Perhaps we in India and Australia feel it much less.”
“Perhaps we in India and Australia feel it much less as someone who travels a fair amount to other parts of the world when we look at Africa and Central America and some other parts of Asia in my own neighborhood. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal,” he said.
