In New Delhi on September 6th the first US-India ‘2+2 dialogue’ will be held. This was announced on Friday by the State Department. Stating that there are “unavoidable reasons”, the US postponed the dialogue initially after which this announcement has come a month later.
State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement that “The United States is pleased to announce that the inaugural US-India ‘2+2 dialogue’ will be held in New Delhi, India, on September 6.” He also conveyed that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis would be traveling to India for the much-awaited dialogue.
PTI quoted Nauert as saying, “Pompeo and Mattis look forward to meeting with their Indian counterparts, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman, to discuss strengthening strategic, security and defence cooperation as the US and India jointly address challenges in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.”
Now India is being imposed with unintended sanctions that are targeted at Iran and Russia and the announcement of the ‘two-plus-two dialogue’ came amidst it.
On July 6 with Pompeo and Mattis, Swaraj and Sitharaman were slated to visit Washington for the first ‘2+2 dialogue’. Earlier, the meeting was scheduled for April this year but was put off after Trump fired then secretary of state Rex Tillerson.
On the other hand, on July 9, an offer from the US for talks between Nirmala Sitharaman and Jim Mattis in lieu of the ‘2-by-2’ dialogue between India’s foreign and defence ministers and US secretaries of state and defence was declined by India.
In August 2017, US and India had announced the ‘2+2 dialogue’ after a telephone call between PM Modi and President Trump.