Defence Minister Rajnath Singh left for the United States last night on a six-day visit. In a tweet, Mr Singh said, he is looking forward to attending the Fourth India-US 22 Ministerial Dialogue in Washington DC. He will also visit the United States Indo-Pacific Command INDOPACOM headquarters in Hawai, during the visit.
The Defence Minister said, the visit to the United States will give him an opportunity to hold talks with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken along with External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar on ways to deepen the India-US strategic partnership.
The US State Department, meanwhile in a media note informed that Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and Secretary of Defense will welcome their Indian counterparts in Washington DC on April 11.
The US statement had said that the 22 Ministerial is an important opportunity to advance our shared objectives across the breadth of the US-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.
Saying that the dialogue will also be a chance to highlight the growing major defence partnership between the US and India, the US State Department said, 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 safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity, uphold human rights and expands regional and global peace and prosperity.
Ahead of the 22 dialogue, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday spoke with EAM Jaishankar on phone to review regional and global priorities, including the situation in Ukraine.
The last 22 Ministerial Dialogue between the two countries was held in October 2020 in New Delhi.
India and the United States held a bilateral 22 inter-sessional meeting in September last year in Washington and exchanged assessments on developments in South Asia, the Indo-Pacific region and the Western Indian Ocean.
