Jaishankar Meets Michael Waltz, Trump's NSA Pick, Signals Collaborative Future

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar met Congressman Michael Waltz, US President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for National Security Adviser, and said he was "looking forward" to work with him.

The EAM Jaishankar and the next US NSA Waltz had a wide-ranging conversation on bilateral partnership between India and US as well as current global issues.

The EAM is in an official visit to the US from Dec 24-29. It was the highest-level, first in-person meeting of the Indian government with the incoming Trump administration.

""Delighted to meet "Waltz this evening", posted EAM Jaishankar on X on Friday.

""Enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation on our bilateral partnership as well as current global issues. Look forward to working with him," said he.

Waltz, 50, would take over from Jake Sullivan as the National Security Advisor on January 20 when President Donald Trump would be inducted as the 47th President of the United States.

Earlier in the day, EAM Jaishankar said he had "concluded a very useful two-day conference of team @IndianEmbassyUS and our Consuls General in Washington DC."

"Confident from the deliberations that the continuous growth of the India-US partnership will be accelerated," he posted on X.

He is US President-elect Trump's new National Security Adviser; Michael Waltz, Congressman from Florida, co-chair of the India Caucus.
Michael Waltz is an Army retired colonel, having been a Green Beret, that is, one of the elite special forces units of the US Army.

He has been a member of the US House of Representatives since 2019. He has, this term, served as a forceful critic of President Joe Biden's foreign policy and is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Intelligence Committee.

He has called for Europe to do more to support Ukraine and for the US to be more stringent with its support, in line with a key foreign policy goal of the President-elect. He has also been a vocal critic of the Biden administration's 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Waltz praised Trump for putting pressure on the NATO allies to increase expenditure on defense; unlike President-elect, she does not, however say the United States should be out of the alliance. She noted, "Well we can be allies, we can be friends; and still have tough conversations".

Waltz is also a member of the Republican's China taskforce and has also argued that the US military is not as ready as it needs to be, should there be conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.

Waltz has openly expressed his willingness to join the administration and had also been a candidate for heading the Pentagon. However, the National Security Adviser does not need a confirmation from the Senate.

Waltz is also a co-chair of the India Caucus in the House, which happens to be the largest country-specific group in the US Congress.

Trump has also been moving at a good pace to announce key personnel for his incoming administration, with Susan Wiles being appointed as his White House Chief of Staff who will mark the first woman to have held the position.

Others among Trump's appointments are Stephen Miller as a senior advisor who has been a harsh critic of the H-1b visa program he tried to kill in Trump's first administration.

From his website, Waltz hails from Boynton Beach, Florida, where he grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute, then proceeding to serve 27 years in the US Army and National Guard.

As Trump's NSA, Waltz will be dealing with Ajit Doval, the Indian NSA who has dealt with a rotating roster of NSA starting with his first Michael Flynn in 2017 and then H R McMaster, John Bolton, and then Robert Brien; all in the Trump administration.

The NSA Doval subsequently dealt with Jake Sullivan, the NSA to US President Joe Biden, who is said to serve out his full term and will exit the administration at the end of his tenure on January 20, 2025.