India, Russia to hold first 2+2 ministerial dialogue today

Image Source : ANI
Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov arrives at Delhi's Palam airport on Sunday.

Highlights

This will be the the first ever 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between India and Russia
The Foreign & Defence Ministers will review the cooperation between the two Asian giants
The new mechanism of 2+2 is expected to strengthen the strategic partnership between India & Russia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu arrived in New Delhi on Sunday for the first ever 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue with their Indian counterparts S Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh, respectively. The meeting will take place in New Delhi today.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Shoygu under the framework of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation. Separately, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Lavrov.

Then the Foreign and Defence ministers of the two sides will hold the '2+2' dialogue to review the cooperation between the two Asian giants. They will discuss the pending defence projects, boost cooperation as well as matters of strategic interests including regional and global issues and developments in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

Notably, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had last month said that the new mechanism of 2+2 dialogue is "expected to further strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries".

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is arriving in New Delhi on Monday for the 21st annual India-Russia Summit, will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House. Both leaders are expected to discuss key bilateral, regional and international issues.

This will mark the first face-to-face meeting between both the leaders, after they met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in November 2019.