2+2 dialogue important opportunity to enhance engagement with India: US

Describing India as an "all-weather partner", the US has said the upcoming 2+2 dialogue with the country is an important opportunity to enhance engagement on a range of diplomatic and security issues and discuss how to operationalise India's status as a major defence partner.

US Secretary of State Micheal Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis will travel to New Delhi next month for the 2+2 dialogue, the format of which was agreed upon between the two sides during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington in June 2017.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were to travel to Washington to take part in the meeting with their US counterparts in July.

But the US had postponed the dialogue citing "unavoidable reasons."
She said India plays a central role in US national security adding that it is "enshrined in the President's national security strategy as well as the administration's South Asia and Indo-Pacific strategies."
She said at the upcoming 2+2 ministerial, the US is looking to discuss "how do we operationalise India's status as a major defense partner."
The US does more military exercises with India than with any other country in the world "but how do we take this partnership to a new level so that it is not just going to be defense acquisitions but really a way of framing how we see challenges and how we want to be able to respond together to address these challenges."
"India really is an all-weather partner as we look ahead to how to ensure that the Indo-Pacific remains free and open."