India will host the third edition of 2+2 ministerial dialogue with the US on 27 October, declared the Ministry of External Affairs today.
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper will visit India on 26-27 October 2020 to take an interest in the Dialogue. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and EAM S Jaishankar will lead the assignments from the Ministry of Defense and MEA respectively, the ministry informed.
The initial two 2+2 ministerial dialogues were held in New Delhi in September 201 and in Washington DC in 2019. “The agenda for the third dialogue will cover all bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interests,” the ministry said in a statement.
“I am looking forward to our 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue with our Indian friends. It was postponed because of the virus. I’m glad that we will be able to execute that in person in just a few days,” said Pompeo.
“I’m also sure that my meetings will also include discussions on how free nations can work together to thwart the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party,” he added.
The following week’s US-India’s 2+2 dialogue will be centered around difficulties in the Indo-Pacific region and the approaches to beat those challenges, said US Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Talking during a discussion with Frederick Kempe, President of Atlantic Council on Tuesday (neighborhood time), Esper stated, “Secretary Michael Pompeo and I will be there next week. It’s our second 2 2 with the Indians, the third ever for the United States and India. And it’s very important. India will well be the most consequential partner for us, I think, in the Indo-Pacific for sure, in this century.”
He further said that the nations in the Indo-Pacific region perceive what China is doing.
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