New Delhi, Oct 21 (UNI) India will host the third edition of India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue on October 27 in the Capital. US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Mark T Esper will be visiting India on October 26-27 to participate in the dialogue, External Affairs Ministry said in a statement here on Wednesday.
From the Indian side, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will lead the delegations. The first two 2+2 Ministerial dialogues were held in New Delhi in September 2018 and in Washington DC in 2019 respectively.
The agenda for the third Dialogue will cover all bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest, it said.
‘‘Looking forward to my upcoming trip to India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Indonesia, for productive conversations with our friends and partners, and the U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue with @EsperDoD and our Indian counterparts,’’ Mr Pompeo said in a tweet on Wednesday.
The next week’s US-India’s 2+2 dialogue will be focused on challenges in the Indo-Pacific region and the ways to overcome those challenges, said US Defence Secretary Mark Esper.
Speaking during a conversation with Frederick Kempe, President of Atlantic Council on Tuesday, Mr Esper said, “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 countries in the Indo-Pacific region recognise what China is doing.
Seeking to build close ties amid an ongoing conflict with China, India and the US are expected to sign the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) for geospatial cooperation during the dialogue.
The BECA deal is the third foundational agreement to be signed between India and the US after the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement and the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
