Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin III will welcome Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in an enhanced honour cordon ceremony at the Pentagon on April 11 (Sunday).
India and the US are set to hold the 2+2 dialogue between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and their respective American counterparts on Sunday.
“The Dialogue would enable both sides to undertake a comprehensive review of cross-cutting issues in the India-US bilateral agenda related to foreign policy, defence and security with the objective of providing strategic guidance and a vision for further consolidating the relationship,” a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement said.
“The 2+2 Dialogue will also provide an opportunity to exchange views about important regional and global developments and how we can work together to address issues of common interest and concern,” the statement added.
The US State Department in a media has note informed that Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and Secretary of Defense will welcome their Indian counterparts in Washington DC on Sunday.
“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 US statement had said.
Ahead of the 2+2 dialogue, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday spoke with EAM Jaishankar on a phone call to review regional and global priorities, including the situation in Ukraine.
The last 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between the two countries was held in October 2020 in New Delhi.
India and the United States held a bilateral 2+2 inter-sessional meeting in September last year in Washington and exchanged assessments on developments in South Asia, the Indo-Pacific region and the Western Indian Ocean.
