India reaffirms commitment to Quad, pushes back on US visa concerns

NEW DELHI: India has restated its commitment to strategic cooperation with the United States through the Quad partnership and emphasised the importance of peaceful resolution in Ukraine, even as tensions emerge over trade, tariffs, and shifting global alliances. Speaking at a weekly press briefing on Friday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal addressed a range of issues, including recent comments by President Donald Trump and criticism of Indias participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Jaiswal said that India remains a steadfast partner in the Quad grouping, which also includes the US, Japan, and Australia. We see the Quad as a valuable forum for discussion among the four member countries on shared interests, Jaiswal said. The Leaders Summit is scheduled through diplomatic consultations among the member countries. The remarks come amid uncertainty surrounding the next Quad summit. According to reports in The New York Times, Trumpwho has reemerged as a key figure in US foreign policy discoursehas dropped plans to attend the summit. Despite rhetoric from the US over trade issues, New Delhi appears focused on deepening multilateral partnerships, including with Western allies. India continues to engage in ongoing diplomatic coordination with Quad members on future summits and policy alignment in the Indo-Pacific. Immigration and labour mobility, another contentious point in India-US relations, also came up in the briefing. Amid claims in the US that Indian firms are exploiting the H-1B visa system to hire cheaper labour, Jaiswal defended the programme as a mutually beneficial mechanism for innovation and economic cooperation. The mobility partnership between India and the United States is an important pillar of this relationship, Jaiswal said. It supports our technology and economic collaboration, as well as initiatives in innovation, emerging technologies, and financial cooperation. Indias comments come amid heightened scrutiny of the H-1B visa program by US policymakers, and increased tariffs on Indian goods imposed under Trumps latest economic agenda.