A range of issues including the Israel-Palestine conflict and the war in Ukraine is expected to be on the agenda of the Fifth India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi on Friday.
US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd J. Austin III will visit India for the meeting. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will represent India in the high-stake talks in the national capital.
What’s On India-US 2+2 Agenda
Defence & Security
The 2+2 will enable a high-level review of progress being made in cross-cutting aspects of defence and security cooperation, technology value chain collaborations and people-to-people ties, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
India-US Partnership Roadmap
The Ministers will take the opportunity to progress the futuristic roadmap for the India-US partnership as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden, in their discussions in June and September this year.
Regional Issues
The MEA said both sides will also take stock of contemporary regional issues and exchange views about shared priorities for augmenting cooperation in multilateral platforms, and through frameworks such as Quad.
Bilateral Meetings
Rajnath Singh and Jaishankar are also scheduled to have bilateral meetings with their respective US counterparts, which will mark a continuity of Ministerial Dialogue and reaffirm the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic partnership.
It may be noted that the first-ever 2+2 Dialogue between the Foreign and Defence Ministers of India and the US took place in 2018.
What Was Discussed at 4th US-India 2+2?
In the fourth US-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue last year in Washington, D.C., the Ministers reviewed “mutual efforts to respond to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and assessed its broader implications”. They urged an “immediate cessation of hostilities”.
On the front of defence and security, the ministers had reaffirmed their ambitions for building an advanced and comprehensive defence partnership in which the US and Indian militaries coordinate closely together across all domains.
The Ministers had also reaffirmed their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific in which the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states are respected, and countries are free from military, economic, and political coercion.
They also reiterated the importance of adherence to international law to meet challenges to the rules-based order, including in the South China Sea, as per the statement released by the Governments of the United States of America and India on the occasion of the Fourth Annual US-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in 2022.
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