Washington, January 20 . Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday attended the swearing-in day prayer service at St. John’s Church in Washington ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of the 47th US President Donald Trump.
Jaishankar wrote on social media platform X, “Today (Monday) I had the privilege of representing India as the Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy at the swearing-in ceremony of the 47th President of the United States in Washington DC.”
During this visit, he met officials of the Trump administration and other important personalities. The purpose of this visit was to strengthen bilateral relations between the US and India. Also, the relationship between India and the US is to be restored to the old era after Trump became President.
Earlier on Sunday, Foreign Minister Jaishankar held a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart Takeshi Iwaya. In this meeting, the two ministers discussed important issues of bilateral cooperation, including political, security, economic, technical and people-to-people contact. This was the second meeting between Jaishankar and Iwaya. Earlier, the two also met at the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Italy in November 2024.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that the meeting further strengthened the shared trust, values and commitment to regional stability between India and Japan. The two leaders expressed satisfaction at the level and pace of exchanges and agreed to maintain strategic dialogue.
In addition, on the completion of 40 years of the first MoU on science and technology cooperation between the two countries in 1985, the ministers decided to declare 2025-26 as the India-Japan Year of Science, Technology and Innovation. During this, efforts to increase people-to-people exchanges in the fields of technology, skills and education were also welcomed.
