New US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has “underscored India’s role as a preeminent US partner in the Indo-Pacific” during a discussion with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on expanding ties, according to State Department Spokesperson Ned Price.

Blinken called Jaishankar on Friday “to reaffirm the growing U.S.-India partnership and discuss issues of mutual concern, including COVID-19 vaccination efforts, regional developments, and next steps in expanding bilateral ties,” Price said.

“Both agreed to coordinate closely on global developments,” said.

Jaishankar tweeted that they “agreed that we could build further on the solid foundation of our partnership.”

They “also discussed our efforts at combating the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.

“Look forward to working with him again,” Jaishankar said in his tweet.

They had worked together and met in New Delhi when Jaishankar was the foreign secretary and Blinken was the deputy secretary of state in 2015.

Price said that the two looked forward to meeting in person at the earliest opportunity.

Blinken stressed the importance of working together to expand regional cooperation, including through the Quad, he added.

Quad is the group of India, the US, Australia and Japan, which was revived with a boost from the administration of former President Donald Trump in 2017 as a bulwark of democracies against China's growing aggression in the region.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Wednesday and discussed continuing close co-operation in the Indo-Pacific region and promoting regional security, according to the White House.

Earlier, Blinken had told the Foreign Relations Committee hearings for his confirmation that there would be continuity in US relations with India which grew under the previous administration.

The US would continue "to make sure we were working with India so that no country in the region including China could challenge its sovereignty and also working with it on concerns that we share about terrorism," he said.