India-US 2+2 dialogue to focus on regional security cooperation and defence information-sharing

The India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue subsequent week will concentrate on regional safety cooperation and defence information-sharing in order that the 2 sides can function extra cohesively and seamlessly whereas coping with regional challenges, senior American officers mentioned on Saturday.

The assembly can even concentrate on international cooperation, together with public well being collaboration to deal with Covid-19, financial cooperation, working collectively within the Indo-Pacific, and people-to-people ties, two senior US administration officers mentioned throughout a background briefing.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh will meet their US counterparts Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper in New Delhi on October 27 for the third version of the two+2 dialogue. American officers have famous the choice by the US leaders to go to India in-person, amid the pandemic and only a week forward of the presidential election, displays the significance hooked up to ties with India.

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One of the officers mentioned there isn’t any motive to imagine the US’s coverage for India will change if there’s a new administration after the November three election. “I think both parties are largely aligned on their interest in supporting and deepening the partnership,” the official mentioned.

India and the US are extensively anticipated to signal the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA), one among 4 so-called foundational pacts to facilitate sharing of categorised satellite tv for pc and sensor knowledge, in the course of the 2+2 assembly.

“We’ve made significant progress towards concluding the last foundational defence enabling agreement…the BECA. This agreement will allow for expanded geospatial information sharing between our armed forces. We are also seeking to expand secure communication capabilities between our respective militaries as well as between our foreign and defence ministries,” the official cited above mentioned.

The US is enhancing maritime safety throughout the Indian Ocean by coordinating and constructing capability with regional international locations, the official mentioned. India’s choice to incorporate Australia with the US and Japan within the Malabar naval train in November “signals not only a strategic convergence between the Quadrilateral partners but a recognition that regional security requires strengthening allies and partnerships and working multilaterally on issues of mutual concern,” the official added.

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The US can be constructing higher navy interoperability with India by growing the sophistication of mixed workouts, and it has positioned a liaison officer at India’s Information Fusion Center for the Indian Ocean to boost coordination and information-sharing between the navies. “We also hope to confirm two additional Indian liaison officer placements in the near term to expand counterterrorism cooperation,” the official mentioned.

The second administration official mentioned it had turn out to be extra vital for the US to work with like-minded companions resembling India in view of “China’s increasingly aggressive behaviour across the Indo-Pacific, from the Himalayas to the South China Sea”. The US facet has already mentioned the India-China border standoff in Ladakh is anticipated to determine within the 2+2 dialogue.

The first administration official mentioned the US administration is “covering the situation in the Himalayas closely” and it desires to “ensure that the situation doesn’t escalate”. The US is offering help, “whether through defence sales, exercises [and] information sharing”, to India, and “not just as it relates to the tensions in the Himalayas”, the official added.

The first official additionally mentioned the 2 sides have an ongoing dialogue about elevated cooperation in Southeast Asia, not simply within the South China Sea, and encourages India’s involvement in these areas. “And that cuts across development investments, it cuts across security cooperation, and then it also involves presence. And so we welcome greater Indian participation in Southeast Asia, across all three of those areas,” the official added.