Washington: The President of the United States Joe Biden spoke today with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the fourth U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue.
The White House stated that together, both leaders committed to strengthening the U.S.-India relationship through cooperation on clean energy, technology and military cooperation, and expanded economic and people-to-people ties. They also committed to continuing cooperation – bilaterally and multilaterally – on ending the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthening global health security, advancing global food security, and ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific. They emphasized their shared commitment, as leaders of the world’s largest democracies, to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
The two leaders also discussed the destabilizing impacts of Russia’s war against Ukraine, with a particular focus on the global food supply. President Biden and Prime Minister Modi looked forward to meeting in person later this spring, in Tokyo, for the Quad summit.
Today the US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III were scheduled to meet Indian Minister of External Affairs Dr S. Jaishankar and Indian Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh in Washington, D.C. for the fourth U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue.
This year’s event will celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations and reaffirm the importance of the U.S.-India Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership in ensuring international peace and security. It will reaffirm the shared commitment of the US and India to a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.
“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,” the US State Department earlier said.
Washington stated that the relationship between the world’s largest democracies “is built on a foundation of common values and resilient democratic institutions, and the shared Indo-Pacific interests of a rules-based international order that safeguards sovereignty and territorial integrity, upholds human rights, and expands regional and global peace and prosperity”.
– global bihari bureau
