All eyes will be on 11th April Two+Two India-US Dialogue

Both Indian ministers Rajnath Singh and Dr S Jaishankar will meet their counterparts, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar are likely to travel to the United States in April and participate in the much-awaited 2+2 Dialogue.

The Dialogue is likely to be hosted by Washington on April 11. Both Indian ministers will meet their counterparts, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

There are chances that both Dr Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh will also have other engagements scheduled on the sidelines. The last 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between the two countries was held in October 2020 in New Delhi. India and the United States held a bilateral 2+2 inter-sessional meeting in September 2021 in Washington.

In 2021 engagements, both sides exchanged assessments on developments in South Asia, the Indo-Pacific region and the Western Indian Ocean.

The Indo-US ties have evolved over the years and have lately taken a new dimension, especially in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The stand of the Modi government on the Ukraine crisis has been to maintain a tightrope walk. New Delhi has called for the complete cessation of violence, resolution of differences through dialogue. 

PM Narendra Modi has told the same to Russian President Putin and also to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky during telephonic conversations.

Both India and the US take a keen interest in the progress and developments in the bilateral agenda under the India-US strategic partnership, including defence, global public health, economic and commercial cooperation, science and technology, clean energy and climate finance, and people-to-people ties. 

This will be the first dialogue in two plus two formats between India and US since President Joe Biden came to power.