India – US Talks on Apr 11 to Review Partnership

WASHINGTON, DC (ANI)- India and the US are set to hold the 2+2 dialog on defense and foreign affairs here.

The US State Department said Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III will welcome their Indian counterparts Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and their respective American counterparts on Apr. 11.

“The 2+2 Ministerial is an important opportunity to advance our shared objectives across the breadth of the US-India Strategic Partnership, including enhancing our people-to-people ties and education cooperation, building diverse, resilient supply chains for critical and emerging technology, scaling up our climate action and public health cooperation, and developing a trade and investment partnership to increase prosperity for working families in both countries,” the State Department said.
Adding that the dialog will also be a chance to highlight the growing major defense partnership between the US and India, the US State Department said, “The relationship between the world’s largest democracies is built on a foundation of common values and resilient democratic institutions, and the shared Indo-Pacific interests of a rules-based international order that safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity, uphold human rights and expands regional and global peace and prosperity.”
Jaishankar will be in the US on Apr 11-12, and will also meet Blinken separately and is also scheduled to meet senior members of the US administration to advance India-US strategic global partnership.
Ahead of the dialog, Blinken had called Jaishankar to review regional and global priorities, including the situation in Ukraine.
The last 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between the two countries was held in Oct 2020 in New Delhi.
The two countries held an inter-sessional meeting in Sept last year in Washington and exchanged assessments on developments in South Asia, the Indo-Pacific region and the Western Indian Ocean.