Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Australian Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Defence Richard Marles will be on an official visit to India from November 19 to 20 to co-chair the 2nd India-Australia 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. A bilateral meeting on defence cooperation will be held between Marles and Rajnath on November 20 followed by the 2+2 dialogue.
The 2+2 dialogue will be co-chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar along with their Australian counterparts, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Defence Richard Marles and Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong. The inaugural 2+2 ministerial dialogue took place in New Delhi in September 2021.
India and Australia are pursuing a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the visit of Marles is expected to give further impetus to the collaboration as well as bilateral defence cooperation. The two countries are expected to discuss wide-ranging issues of mutual interest during the 2+2 dialogue and the bilateral Defence Ministers’ meeting.
The 2+2 form of meeting is aimed at enhancing the scope of dialogue and understanding of strategic matters. Additionally, India has held 2+2 meetings with Japan, United Kingdom (UK) and Russia. The first meeting on the 2+2 pattern was held in 2018 with the US followed by Japan in 2019 and Russia in 2021.
Interestingly, this would be the third meeting on the 2+2 pattern with different countries to be held in India in just over a month.
The India-US 2+2 was held on November 11 as Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar met Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. It was the fifth India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi.
The inaugural India-UK 2+2 Foreign and Defence Dialogue was held in New Delhi on October 16. The Indian delegation was co-chaired by Piyush Srivastava, Joint Secretary Europe West, Ministry of External Affairs and Vishwesh Negi, Joint Secretary, International Cooperation, Ministry of Defence. The UK delegation was co-chaired by Ben Mellor, India Director, Indian Ocean Directorate, FCDO and Lt. General Rob Magowan, Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, Finance and Military Capability, Ministry of Defence.
Bilateral relations between Australia and India were upgraded from a Strategic Partnership in 2009 to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) in 2020. Over the years, in addition to the 2+2 Defence and Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue, an array of institutional mechanisms has been put in place to promote bilateral co-operation. Bilateral mechanisms include high level visits, annual meetings of Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue, Joint Trade & Commerce Ministerial Commission, Defence Policy Talks, Australia-India Education Council, Defence Services Staff Talks, Energy Dialogue and Joint Working Groups (JWGs) on different issues.
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