India, US ‘2+2 Ministerial’ meet unlikely to be held this year

The proposed ‘2+2 Ministerial’ meeting between India and the US is unlikely to be held this year as the Trump administration is yet to finalise some of the key positions in his government to oversee its bilateral strategic and geopolitical ties with India.

The ‘2+2 Ministerial’ is going to be an annual Cabinet-level meeting between both the governments that will be chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman from India while from the US side it will be chaired by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Secretary of Defence James Mattis, sources told BusinessLine .

This new mechanism has been proposed in lieu of the ‘Strategic and Commercial Dialogue’ (S&CD) that was established under former US President Barack Obama in 2015 in order to deepen the strategic and business ties between the countries other than trade issues, which continue to remain a sore point between both countries.

“The new format has been put in place because the S&CD could not yield the desired results and for trade there already is a dialogue,” said an official, who is involved in the deliberations for the new mechanism.

The ‘2+2 Ministerial’ meet was proposed by US President Donald Trump in a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month. This was also reiterated by US Secretary of Defence James Mattis when he visited India earlier this week.

While India has welcomed the dialogue, it is unlikely to take place this year because the US government has not yet officially finalised the name of Kenneth Juster, former director of the National Economic Council at the White House, as their next Ambassador to India.

The US Senate is yet to clear his name. Besides, the names of Assistant Secretary of Defence for Asia-Pacific and other key positions at the State Department are also yet to be finalised.

“I believe the new 2+2 format will create a formal integration of the diplomatic and defence components of strategic consultations. The US and India already have had solid diplomatic and defence consults, so this ropes those together on an annual basis at the Cabinet level,” said Alyssa Ayres, a former State Department official under the Obama administration, who is now a Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ayres said that the 2+2 Ministerial might take place on the same dates every year. She added that this mechanism will create a new framework for both sides and the bureaucracies within them to collaborate more closely.

According to a White House statement, the new ministerial dialogue will enhance peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region by “elevating” their strategic-level consultations.

Richard Rossow, Senior Adviser and Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “Our defence ties are expanding faster than other parts of our relationship. Yet both countries suffer from occasional differences in the direction and pace between our defence and diplomatic communities. This new format should help bring alignment and hopefully a bit more speed.”

The only other country with which India holds a Cabinet-level meeting is Germany under the framework of the India-Germany Intergovernmental Consultations (IGC).

The only difference is under this framework leaders of both the countries preside over the plenary session and it is held every two years.

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