India-US talks have their own dynamics: MEA
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 22
“Diplomatic calendars have their logic. The last two meetings were also held towards the end of the year,” said the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava during a media briefing on Thursday.
Srivastava was attempting to dispel the impression that the timing of the India-US two plus two on October 27 close on the heels of the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting was meant to contain China.
India has not gone public with the China threat during bilateral interactions with the US and its allies, preferring to keep within closed doors the strategising on the People’s Liberation Army’s aggression in the maritime and land domains. The previous two Indo-US two plus two dialogues were held in New Delhi in September 2018 and in Washington in December 2019, pointed out Srivastava.
Fielding questions on the agenda, expectation of the likely outcome and the agreements to be signed, Srivastava counseled patience in order not to prejudge the outcome. He also maintained that the discussions next week between India’s Defence and Foreign Ministers with their US counterparts will not focus on a single issue when he was asked whether economic and immigration issues will also be discussed at the interaction.
A pre-meeting MEA readout also did not mention China nor did it talk of a free and open Indo-Pacific, an euphemism for not allowing China to have its way in the East China Sea and South China Sea. Srivastava instead said previous rounds of talks have enabled both sides to further progress the bilateral relationship and strengthen the institutional framework for cooperation across all sectors. In this respect the MEA enumerated six areas—political, security and defence, economic, commercial, technology and people-to-people contacts.
“We have regular dialogue for various levels to discuss ongoing bilateral cooperation and to exchange views on developments in the region,” he said while expecting the third India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue to entail a “comprehensive discussion on cross cutting bilateral issues of mutual interest”.
The visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Mark Esper will have separate bilateral meetings with their counterparts. They will also meet NSA Ajit Doval and will jointly call on PM Narendra Modi.
