FOR THE first time since the Israel-Hamas war began, US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd J Austin will be visiting India next week for the India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will host the two visiting US Cabinet ministers on November 9-10. Announcing the visit on Thursday, the US State Department said Blinken will travel to Tel Aviv, Amman, Tokyo, Seoul and New Delhi from November 2-10. “The Secretary will then travel to New Delhi to participate in the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue, joined by Secretary of Defence Lloyd J Austin III. The delegation will meet with Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh, and other senior Indian officials to discuss both bilateral and global concerns and developments in the Indo-Pacific,” it said. Blinken last visited India in March this year for the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi. With the Russia-Ukraine war still continuing, the Israel-Hamas war escalating, and China's assertiveness continuing in the Indo-Pacific, the two sides have a lot to discuss. India will be hosting the US Cabinet ministers exactly two months after US President Joe Biden visited India for the G20 leaders’ summit on September 9-10. India has invited Biden for the Republic Day celebrations, as part of its plan to host the Quad leaders’ summit in January next year. This meeting will also take stock of Biden's possible travel plans. The 2+2 ministerial dialogue is the highest level of stock-taking, encompassing a wide range of issues – from defence to nuclear, space to cyber security, visas to health. But the major challenge confronting the two countries is Beijing's belligerence, at a time when India and China are locked in a border standoff since May 2020. The US, too, has a tense relationship with China. Blinken held a bilateral meeting with China's Director of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs Commission and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Washington on October 26-27. The two sides met for more than seven hours over two days, and had constructive and in-depth discussions, building on recent high-level meetings between the two countries as part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication on a full range of issues and responsibly manage the US-China relationship, the US State Department had said.
