US secretary of defence Mark Esper has said that India and the US will hold their third 2+2 ministerial meeting in New Delhi next week. He did not rule out the possibility that the two sides may sign a widely anticipated maritime information sharing agreement.
Esper and secretary of state Mike Pompeo will travel to New Delhi for day-long in-person meetings, a rare but significant departure given the Covid-19 pandemic and the global shift to virtual interactions, with their Indian counterparts Rajnath Singh and S Jaishankar on October 27.
Separately, a bipartisan group of 14 US senators jointly expressed “strong support” for India’s decision to formally invite Australia to the upcoming Malabar naval exercises with the US and Japan saying it’s an “invaluable” move from an operational perspective and of “symbolic” importance.
“Secretary Pompeo and I will be there next week,” Esper said at Atlantic Council, a think tank, responding to a question about the upcoming 2+2. “It’s our second two plus two with the Indians, the third ever for the United States and India and it’s very important.”
This will be the third edition of the India-US 2+2 that started with India hosting the first in 2018 in New Delhi; the United States hosted the second in Washington DC in 201.9.
An official announcement with details of the meetings and agenda was expected shortly. The two countries are also reported to sign BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement) on sharing of geospatial information, considered the fourth and last of the foundational agreements.
