By Meghak Gupta “The US-India relationship was made all the stronger with a great diplomat and leader as my friend,” the US secretary of state tweeted, referring to his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar.
Describing external affairs minister S Jaishankar as “my friend” and “great diplomat”, US secretary of state Michael Pompeo said on Tuesday the United States and India have “never been closer” .
“The US relationship with Asia’s most populous democracy has never been closer, from trade to military cooperation and more,” Pompeo wrote in a tweet, which linked to a speech he gave in June 2019 during a visit to New Delhi.
In that speech he had said, “We each, India and the United States, should see the world as it is, and see each other for what we are: great democracies, global powers, and good friends. We have the ability to forge a new kind of cooperation that won’t just be good for us, but for the region, and indeed for the entire world.”
And then he tweeted a shout out to his Indian counterpart: “The US-India relationship was made all the stronger with a great diplomat and leader as my friend,” he wrote, adding hashtags to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Atlanta rally with President Trump and a Modi campaign slogan: #HowdyModi, #ModiHaitoMumkinHai.
Pompeo has been tweeting foreign policy milestones and high points of the Trump administration such as the North Korea talks, which in the end yielded not much, and defended against criticism of being soft on Russia and harsh on European allies.
The tweets have been described by some people as a “soft launch” of his run for the White House, which has been widely speculated about, but they also seemed like the secretary of state was a doing farewell run, which he cannot officially affirm because President Donald Trump has not conceded defeat and has continued to claim, falsely, that he won the November election.