India is concerned that the much-awaited ‘2+2 Ministerial’ meet may get “further delayed” with the bilateral ties hitting a rough patch in less than a year since the two countries vowed to attain “prosperity through partnership.”

Soon after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced earlier this month that India will not be purchasing the F-16 fighter jets from American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin for the time being, the US Trade Representative (USTR) filed a massive trade dispute against India specifically targeting the ‘Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020’ at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Not wasting any moment, India is believed to have kicked off a major diplomatic outreach with the US in order to prevent bilateral ties from going down further, sources told BusinessLine .

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale is already in the US holding extensive talks with US State Department officials while Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna is believed to be holding a series of meetings to firm up agenda for the upcoming ‘2+2 Ministerial’ that is expected to be held on April 19 in Washington DC, sources said.

In an unprecedented step, the US Trade Representative (USTR) has complained against all of India’s export subsidy programmes amounting to $7 billion stating that these schemes have harmed American workers and manufacturers.

“Trade disputes are a common occurrence in any trading partnership, and dispute settlement tools, such as the WTO, allow us to resolve the issues. We encourage the Indian and US governments at the highest levels to engage in consistent dialogues to advance our trade ties in a manner that benefits both economies. We urge a continued commitment to a rules-based trading order and for both the United States and India to uphold the values of free and fair trade,” Nisha Biswal, President, US-India Business Council (USIBC).

According to official sources, India is “concerned” that this move can “further delay” the talks, which have already suffered a couple of delays.

Officials added that a proper agenda for the dialogue could not be finalised by the US as well as India post the exit of Former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and coming in of Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Michael Pompeo in his place. However, the Indian government tried to downplay the situation publicly.

Announcement soon

“The WTO issues is unrelated with the 2+2 dialogue. We are in touch with each other. We hope to have an announcement (on 2+2 Ministerial) soon,” said Raveesh Kumar, Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, on Thursday.

The ‘2+2 Ministerial’ meeting was expected to take place in September last year but it got delayed to January this year, which also did not happen. However, during a phone-call between Trump and Modi in February, both leaders agreed to hold it in April.

The new dialogue mechanism was announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington when he met US President Donald Trump in June last year. That is also when both the countries agreed to a joint statement – US and India: Prosperity Through Partnership.

While the ‘2+2 Ministerial’ is aimed at strengthening the strategic partnership between both countries, including their joint cooperation in the India-Pacific region, the recent exchange of barbs over trade-related matters is expected to mar the talks significantly, said sources.

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