US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin reached India on Thursday and was accorded with the tri-service Guard of Honour at the Palam Airport in New Delhi, ahead of the India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue scheduled on Friday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will reach India tomorrow to co-chair the dialogue alongside Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
With his arrival, Austin commenced his two-day trip to India. The US Secretaries will co-chair the dialogue, which will be followed up by a bilateral meeting between Austin and Rajnath Singh, according to the Ministry of Defence.
Following his visit to India, he will also travel to South Korea and Indonesia, marking his ninth visit to the Indo-Pacific region. Austin's last visit to India was in June 2023 when he met the Indian Defence Minister. He is expected to discuss a number of strategic, defence and technology issues during the 2+2 dialogue and the bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart.
India-US 2+2 Dialogue
The 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue is a diplomatic summit held every year since 2018, with the Minister of External Affairs and the Defence Minister representing India and the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defence representing the United States.
This year, India and the US will take stock of contemporary regional issues and exchange views about shared priorities for augmenting cooperation in multilateral platforms, and through frameworks such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.
The Indian and US representatives will discuss opportunities to progress the futuristic roadmap for the India-US partnership as envisioned by PM Modi and US President Joe Biden, in their discussions in June and September this year.
The first India-US 2+2 dialogue was held in 2018 under the administration of former US President Donald Trump. This year, the US side is also expected to push for military hardware cooperation while India is likely to ask for the sharing of high-end technology for developing indigenous weapon systems during the ministerial, sources told news agency ANI.
(with ANI inputs)
