Jaishankar holds talks with Spanish counterpart

New Delhi, Jun 15 (PTI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday held wide-ranging talks with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares Bueno focusing on bilateral cooperation in areas of defence, trade and culture.

The crisis in Ukraine is also learnt to have figured in the discussions. “Warm and productive discussions with Foreign Minister @jmalbares of Spain. Discussed our growing engagements in political, defence, economic and cultural domains. Envisage enhanced collaboration to support self reliance and resilient supply chains,” Jaishankar tweeted.

Albares is on a day-long visit to India. India and Spain enjoy close and friendly relations. The bilateral ties got a fresh impetus after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Spain in 2017. On his part, Albares described India as a global power and an important partner of Spain.

In a tweet in Spanish, he said the meeting with Jaishankar was excellent and that both sides will continue to work to deepen the bilateral relations and signed a declaration for cultural and academic cooperation. On Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs said that Albares’s visit would be an opportunity to review the entire gamut of our bilateral relations and further deepen the partnership across various areas including trade, defence, science and technology and climate change.