Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden will have a virtual meeting on Monday ahead of the 2+2 ministerial dialogue. The last meeting between PM Modi and President Biden was held in March along with other Quad leaders.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced the Modi-Biden meeting and said that it will “enable both sides to continue their regular and high-level engagement aimed at further strengthening the bilateral comprehensive global strategic partnership.”
“The two leaders will review ongoing bilateral cooperation and exchange views on recent developments in South Asia and global issues of mutual interest,” said MEA in a statement.
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MEA added, “The virtual meeting will enable both sides to continue their regular and high-level engagement aimed at further strengthening the bilateral Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership”.
Key issues to be discussed
President Biden and Prime Minister Modi will discuss cooperation on a range of issues including ending the Covid-19 pandemic, countering the climate crisis, strengthening the global economy, and upholding a free, open, rules-based international order to bolster security and democracy, said the White House in a media release.
Discussion on Indo-Pacific region
The leaders will advance ongoing conversations about the development of an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and delivering high-quality infrastructure.
Russia-Ukraine war
As per the White House, President Biden will raise the Russia-Ukraine war in the meeting. “Consultations on the consequences of Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine and mitigating its destabilising impact on global food supply and commodity markets will be discussed,” said the White House.
Biden may raise India’s stand on Ukraine crisis
The virtual meeting comes in the midst of some disquiet in Washington over India’s position on the Ukraine crisis as well as its decision to procure discounted Russian oil. In March, US Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics, Daleep Singh during a visit to New Delhi said that Washington would not like to see a “rapid” acceleration in India’s import of energy and other commodities from Russia.
India- US 2+2 ministerial dialogue
Post the virtual meeting between India and the US, 2+2 ministerial dialogue will be held between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. The 2+2 dialogue will review bilateral cooperation across domains and chart the way forward for the two countries. The Ukraine issue is also likely to come up at the 2+2 dialogue.
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Issues likely to be discussed at 2+2 dialogue
The meeting will cover the topics of the US-India Strategic Partnership. “The 2+2 Ministerial is an important opportunity to advance our shared objectives across the breadth of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership, including enhancing our people-to-people ties and education cooperation, building diverse, resilient supply chains for critical and emerging technology, scaling up our climate action and public health cooperation, and developing a trade and investment partnership to increase prosperity for working families in both countries. It is also a chance to highlight the growing Major Defense Partnership between the United States and India”, said the office of the US State Department.
Meeting between India-US Defence Ministers
Rajnath Singh will separately meet the US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin in the Pentagon. The two will discuss defence cooperation, including defence industrial collaboration and capability building through military-to-military engagements.
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