US AND INDIA PLEDGE COOPERATION AS DOMESTIC CRISES PLAY OUT

US AND INDIA PLEDGE COOPERATION AS DOMESTIC CRISES PLAY OUT

The United States and India agreed to expand defense, science and technology cooperation as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said impeachment would not distract the Trump administration on national security matters

Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper met their Indian counterparts for security talks at the State Department as the House debated impeachment charges against President Donald Trump. The House voted later Wednesday to impeach the president, setting up a Senate trial.

Pompeo said “the noise and silliness” in Washington would not affect the administration’s focus on U.S. national security.

The U.S. and India are each dealing with domestic political crises: the U.S. with impeachment, India with widespread protests and violent clashes in India over a new citizenship law.

“The world should know that despite all the noise, the chaos, the media asking questions that are completely unrelated to the reason we are here today, that the leaders of our two nations are working diligently to protect the American people, to develop a relationship that’s important strategically for the coming decades between the United States and India,” Pompeo said.

“We won’t let the noise and the silliness in Washington, D.C., distract us from that,” he said at a news conference with Esper, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.