Worldview with Suhasini Haidar | Decoding India and US’s 2+2 dialogue

This week on Worldview with Suhasini Haidar, we discuss the virtual summit between PM Modi and U.S. President Biden and the 2+2 dialogue between India and the U.S.

India and US receive a reality check as they intensify talks in Washington: agree to disagree on Ukraine, announce agreements on other fronts.

This week saw high-level, intense meetings between India and the United States- as PM Modi and US President Biden announced a surprise virtual summit to take place just before talks between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and their American counterparts US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Gen (Retd) Lloyd Austin. While Austin and Blinken have visited Delhi in the past year, this is the first 2+2 Ministerial held since the Biden administration took over, and the fourth such meeting ever. At present India holds a 2+2 with only 4 countries: the US, Australia, Japan, and Russia, which are seen as a productive way to discuss Diplomatic, Military and Strategic issues altogether. And the 4 meetings they held yielded some agreements, although the talks focused for a considerable part, according to both sides, on the situation in Ukraine.

Let’s just take the issues one by one and see what happened-

I. On Ukraine

1. India’s refusal to criticise Russia, or vote on UN resolutions criticising Russia

2. India’s decision to increase its import of Russian oil

3. India’s refusal to join US and EU sanctions, and to negotiate a payment mechanism to work around the sanctions through Rupee-Rouble payments