India, US vow to bolster strategic partnership

New Delhi [India], September 7 : India-US 2+2 Inter-sessional meeting was held in New Delhi on Wednesday where the senior officials vowed to further strengthen the strategic partnership between both nations.
The officials also reviewed the outcomes of the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue which was held in April 2022. The India-US 2+2 Inter-sessional meeting was led by senior officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Defence and the US Departments of State and Defence.
"India-US 2+2 Inter-sessional meeting held today in New Delhi. Led by senior officials from MEA & MoD and US Departments of State & Defence. Reviewed outcomes of the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue of April 2022, with the aim of further strengthening the strategic partnership," wrote MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.
This is the sixth India-US 2+2 Intersessional Dialogue. Through these dialogues, the United States and India will advance an ambitious set of initiatives across the defence partnership ahead of the 2+2 ministerial next year, including in support of information-sharing, logistics, technology, and high-end navy cooperation.
Notably, India is the centrepiece of the Joe Biden administration's Indo-Pacific strategy - Indian Foreign and Defence Ministers recently held the '2+2' meeting with their American counterparts.
India-US bilateral partnership today encompasses a whole host of issues including the response to Covid-19, economic recovery post-pandemic, the climate crisis and sustainable development, critical and emerging technologies, supply chain resilience, education, the diaspora and defence and security.
The breadth and depth of Indo-US ties remain unmatched and the drivers of this partnership have been growing at an unprecedented rate. The relationship remains unique insofar as this is driven at both levels: at the strategic elite as well as at the people-to-people level.
Although India and the US have quite contradictory responses to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, in the recent meeting, the Prime Minister and the US President expressed that the world's two major democracies are willing to work around their divergences to arrive at mutually acceptable outcomes.
India and the US have underscored their commitment to continue building on recent years' momentum and not lose sight of the larger strategic picture.
The defence partnership between India and the US continues to multiply with the US secretary of defence underlining that the two nations have "identified new opportunities to extend the operational reach of our militaries and to coordinate more closely together across the expanse of the Indo-Pacific."
The US also pointedly mentioned that China was constructing "dual-use infrastructure" along the border with India and that it would "continue to stand alongside" India to defend its sovereign interest.