8 things that happened at the latest India-US 2+2 meeting
India and US are taking part in their fourth, '2+2' ministerial dialogue in Washington DC from 10th to 12th April, to boost the strategic partnership between both countries. So what is this meeting for, who all are a part of it and what has happened so far? Here is what we know:
India’s External Affairs Minister and Defence Minister, S Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh, met their American counterparts, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for a dialogue. Before the meeting began, US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met virtually on 11th April.
India has 2+2 dialogues with four key strategic partners: the US, Australia, Japan, and Russia. The intention of the Indo- US meeting was to deepen their bilateral trade and investment relationships by finding more oppportunities related to foreign policy, defence, and security.
Here is what happened at the meeting:
1. India and the US discussed about expanding their cooperation into new defence areas like space and cyberspace, so that their military forces could jointly find solutions to the problems that the world faced in this century. India and the US signed a bilateral Space Situational Awareness Arrangement to increase information sharing and cooperation in space. This might see new efforts into monitoring of space debris, meteorites and satellites.
2. US and India have agreed to work together on ''air-launched unmanned aerial vehicles through Defence Technology and Trade Initiatives.'' They have also agreed to launch new supply chain cooperation measures so that the defence requirements of both countries are met on priority. US has been providing key defence platforms to India to support it as a defence leader in the Indo-Pacific region.
3. The leaders reviewed mutual efforts that were used to respond to the terrible humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and assessed its wider implications. Both countries have urged for an immediate cessation of hostilities and have condemned deaths of innocent civilians. They emphasized that global order must be restored by respecting international laws and the sovereignty integrity of all states.
4. Lloyd Austin said that US was committed to supporting India, if China showed hostility on India's northern borders. US recognised that Beijing was eroding security of the Indo-Pacific region in multiple ways. First, they were constructing dual-use infrastructure along India's border and also unlawfully claiming territory in the South China Sea. US also recognised that Beijing's actions were instrumental in India's neutral stance.
5. US has also agreed to support India in securing permanent membership in a reformed UN Security Council, and to help India gain entry to the Nuclear Suppliers' Group.
6. Indian Defence minister Rajnath Singh urged American companies to invest in India and support the 'Make in India' programme. The event also allowed Singh to meet senior executives of Boeing and Raytheon separately. Singh encouraged both companies to take advantage of India's new policies which were now transitioning from 'Make in India' to 'Make for the World.'
7. A day after Shehbaz Sharif replaced Imran Khan as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, US and India asked Pakistan to take ''immediate, sustained, and irreversible" action to ensure that no territory under its control was used for terrorist attacks. US and India both emphasised on the importance of upholding international standards on anti-money laundering and combating terrorism financing. This was important for the US since Pakistan is on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) since June 2018 for failing to check money laundering and terror financing.
8. Jaishankar addressed the media with a cheeky reply, when he was asked to justify India's stand towards buying oil from Russia. Jaishankar asked the media to focus on Europe, instead of focussing on India, since India's monthly oil purchase from Russia was less than what Europe bought from Russia in a day.