Rajnath Singh, US Defense Secy to co-chair India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue

New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS) Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his American counterpart Lloyd Austin will co-chair the India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue on Friday.

Austin will arrive in New Delhi on Thursday on a two-day visit.

The Defence Ministry said that upon his arrival, the Defense Secretary will be accorded with a Tri-Service Guard of Honour at the Palam Technical Area.

The Ministry said that Austin and Rajnath Singh will also hold a bilateral meeting, durig which a number of strategic, defence and technology issues are expected to be discussed.

The  India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue will also be attended by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his American counterpart Antony Blinken.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs Ministry, the 2+2 "will enable a high-level review of progress being made in cross-cutting aspects of defence and security cooperation, technology value chain collaborations and people-to-people ties".

"The Ministers will take the opportutnity to progress the futuristic roadmap for the India-US partnership as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden, in their discussions in June and September this year," the Ministry said in a statement.

It further said that Blinken and Jaishanakr will also take stock of "contemporary regional issues and exchange views about shared priorities for augmenting cooperation in multilateral platforms, and through frameworks such as Quad".