India, US will hold 2+2 talks in November

THE DATES FOR THE 2+2 DIALOGUE BETWEEN FOREIGN AND DEFENCE MINISTERS OF THE TWO NATIONS ARE YET TO BE DECIDED

WASHINGTON: The next round of India-us 2+2 ministerial dialogue is expected to take place in November this year and there is possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden later this month although there is no confirmation from the Indian government as yet.

Foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told reporters on Friday, at the end of two days of meetings with American officials and business leaders, that the dates for the 2+2 dialogue are still being discussed. He also spoke of the tentative bilateral summit and said it was under discussion.

“We are looking at the 2+2, which will happen in November. The exact dates are not yet worked out,” Shringla told reporters at the conclusion of his visit in Washington.

It is the US’S turn to host the 2+2 annual meeting of the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries and it will be the first meeting of this format for the Biden administration. The last meeting was held in New Delhi last October with Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper, secretaries of state and defence in the Trump administration.

The upcoming meeting will be between India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh, and US secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin.

The Indian side has also begun advance preparations for a possible visit to the US by

Prime Minister Narendra Modi by the end of September, people aware of the matter said. Though there has been no formal announcement from the Indian side, the dates between September 22 and 27 were being looked at for the visit, they added.

An in-person summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) -- a grouping of the US, India, Japan and Australia -was also being discussed for the end of September after leaders of the four countries held a virtual meeting in March this year, the people said. However, there is a lack of clarity on holding the face-to-face Quad summit after Japan’s Yoshihide Suga announced he will step down as Prime Minister.

The foreign secretary also said President Biden’s special envoy on climate, John Kerry, will visit India soon for a second time in this capacity. Kerry was the US secretary of state in the Obama administration.

During his visit to Washington, Shringla met senior leaders of the US State Department, including secretary of state Blinken and deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman, along with top leaders at the US Department of Defense and the National Security Council at the White House.

The situation in Afghanistan predictably made its way into conversations with American officials, with the foreign secretary saying that the US’S position of “wait and watch” tracked closely with India’s own approach on the issue.

Shringla said the US has adopted a “wait and watch policy” and that they will calibrate their actions depending on how the situation evolves in Kabul, which has been taken over by the Taliban as western forces pulled out their troops from the country to end a 20-year war in chaos.

“That’s also similar to what we ourselves conveyed in the parliamentary briefing that was held a few days ago. We said we will have a wait-and-watch policy, which does not mean you don’t do anything,” Shringla said. “It simply means… the situation is very fluid on the ground, you have to allow it to see how it evolves. You have to see whether the assurances that were made publicly are maintained on the ground,” he added.

THERE ARE TALKS OF A POSSIBLE MEETING BETWEEN PM MODI AND U.S. PREZ JOE BIDEN LATER THIS MONTH