External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar expressed optimism on his US visit that "India will continue to shape the big debates of our times”. This is the foreign minister's first visit to the US after India entered the UN Security Council earlier this year.

Jaishankar said so at a meeting with India's Permanent Representative to the UN, TS Tirumurti, Deputy Permanent Representative Ambassador K. Nagaraj Naidu and other Indian officials at the UN mission.

On Tuesday, Jaishankar will hold a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Later in Washington, he is slated to meet his US counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and also National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. He will also meet American lawmakers, think-tanks, leaders of the corporate sector and members of the Indian diaspora.

News agency PTI quotes a State Department spokesperson as saying that Blinken and Jaishankar will discuss a wide range of issues, including Covid-19, strengthen Indo-Pacific cooperation through the Quad, enhancing multilateral cooperation.

The spokesperson added that the two leaders will also discuss other regional security and economic priorities.