The fourth annual 2+2 ministerial dialogue between India and the US will take place in November this year in Washington, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.
Shringla, who is on a three-day visit to Washington, following his successful trip to New York, said: “We used this opportunity to have the 2+2 inter-sessional meeting at the joint secretary level.
He also spoke of the tentative bilateral summit as he qualified it as something under discussion.
It’s the US’ turn to host the annual meeting of the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries and it will be the first meeting of this format with the Biden administration.
The last meeting was held in New Delhi October 2020 with MikePompeo 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.
An in-person summit of the Quad – with leaders of Japan and Australia – is also being discussed following up the virtual meeting in March.
Modi and Biden could meet for their first bilateral at the time according to discussions currently underway.
Also, President Biden’s special envoy on climate John Kerry is headed for India, for his second visit in this capacity.
Shringla met almost the entire leadership of the state department including secretary of state Blinken and deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman, and top leaders at the department of defence and the national security council at the White House.
The situation in Afghanistan figured in all his conversations predictably and the foreign secretary said the US position of “wait and watch” tracked closely with India’s own approach.