India and US to hold third 2+ 2 Ministerial Dialogue on October 27

New Delhi: US Secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, and Secretary of Defense, Mark T. Esper, will be visiting India on October 26 and 27 to participate at the third India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue.

The mega event hosted by India will be held on October 27 and the agenda for the third dialogue will cover all bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar would be leading the Indian delegations at the meet.

The first two 22 Ministerial dialogues were held in New Delhi in September 2018 and in Washington DC in December 2019..

“The discussions in these Dialogues have enabled both sides to further progress the bilateral relationship and strengthen the institutional framework for cooperation across all sectors. India and US have a comprehensive global strategic partnership which includes political, security and defence, economic, commercial, technology and people to people contacts,” MEA spokesman Anurag Srivastava told reporters here.

“We have regular dialogue for various levels to discuss on-going bilateral cooperation and to exchange views on developments in the region,” he further said adding the meet in Delhi on Tuesday will also exchange views on salient regional and global issues.

Secretaries Esper and Pompeo will also have bilateral meetings with their respective counterparts. Both the visiting dignitaries will also be meeting NSA Ajit Doval and will jointly call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In September 2018, the inaugural 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue was hosted jointly by Late Sushma Swaraj (EAM) and Nirmala Sitharaman (Defence Minister) and was described as “very productive” by PM Modi.

For his part, Secretary of State Pompeo had underlined the need for ‘reinforcing’ the shared interest by both countries to promote peace in the Indo-Pacific region.

Pompeo had also said that, “Modi’s leadership along with that of President Trump have truly put the relationship between India and the United States on a good plane with an upward trajectory”.

The second India-US 2+2 dialogue was held at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department in Washington.

MEA spokesman said, “This year, till date, Pakistani forces have carried out more than 3800 unprovoked ceasefire violations. There have also been attempts to drop arms and ammunition close to the LoC in the garb of civilian activities”.

He further said – Pakistan forces have continued to engage in unprovoked ceasefire violations, often from civilian areas, to support infiltration of terrorists across the LoC. “This is a clear violation of the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding between the two sides”.