Last Thursday, a lead item in the New York Times wondered whether the West Asian crisis would disrupt the momentum of “the long-promised [American] pivot to Asia.”
The answer came from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who had already begun the Asian tour that saw him in New Delhi on Friday along with the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, to participate in the fifth 2+2 ministerial meeting with their Indian counterparts External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
The US, Blinken had noted, was not only dealing with the Gaza crisis, and “not only able, but…fully engaged in all of the interests we have in the Indo-Pacific.
The Main Objective of the 2+2
The New Delhi meeting in the 2+2 format on Friday, therefore, had one clear value — to show the world that the US is not allowing the Israel-Hamas war to detract from its Indo-Pacific focus.
Indeed, in his opening remarks, Jaishankar acknowledged that “a key focus” of the discussions would be the Indo-Pacific region. New Delhi is planning to host the next Quad Summit early next year.
A second key issue that the 2+2 meeting dealt with was to review of a range of initiatives and policies that the US and India have taken just in the past year, and, indeed, in the past few months around the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Washington DC in June.
These were primarily though, not exclusively in the area of defence technology.
This was emphasized in the post-meeting briefing by Foreign Secretary V M Kwatra who noted that in the Friday meeting the two sides “undertook a comprehensive review of our bilateral partnerships” in a range of areas relating to defence, technology, emerging and critical technologies, space, mineral security, terrorism, and so on.
In addition, the leaders deliberated on ongoing regional and global developments including the Israel-Hamas war where India put forward its call for an early dialogue and a two-state solution.
On Canada, China, and Tech
One of the contentious issues taken up in the meeting was the India-Canada relationship. According to reports, Blinken told reporters on Friday that, “It’s very important that India work with Canada on its investigation,” on the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
In his briefing to the media, Kwatra said that India had emphasised its seriousness over increased Khalistani activities in Canada.
Speaking during his one-on-one meeting with his American counterpart, Rajnath Singh said that the Indo-US defence relationship has deepened and that “we increasingly find ourselves in agreement on strategic issues, including countering China’s aggression, promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific and addressing regional security challenges.”
This direct reference to China was unusual and could generate some controversy.
In January 2023, in preparation for Modi’s visit to Washington, Indian and American national security advisers met and gave shape to the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), which was launched in Washington through an inaugural meeting during the Modi visit to expand the India-US “strategic technology partnership and defense industrial cooperation” not just between governments, but also businesses and academic institutions of the two countries.
Parallel Talks on Defence Cooperation
Parallel to this were discussions between US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh that led to the adoption of an Indo-US Defence Industrial Cooperation Roadmap.
As part of this, the US had declared the aim of making India “a logistic hub for the United States” and integrating the Indian defence industry into the global supply chain of US defence and aerospace companies.
On 21 June 2023, the Indian Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defense US launched a bilateral Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) to expand strategic technology and defence industrial cooperation. This was envisaged as an ambitious venture which would connect industry and academic institutions and promote public-private partnerships.
On the eve of the 2+2 meeting on 8 November, the defence departments of the US and India organised the first INDUS-X investors meeting in New Delhi. The INDUS-X Educational (Gurukul) series was also launched.
According to a press release, the event evoked the interest of investors in startups and MSMEs operating in the defence sector, like a “defence innovation bridge” that would link the two countries.
In June, the General Electric company had agreed to jointly produce their GE F-414 jet engine in India. As per the deal, GE will provide 80 per cent of technology transfer.
In September, the two sides held a “2+2 Intersessional dialogue” between officials of their respective defence and foreign ministries. Besides reviewing the progress in implementing the Roadmap for US-India Defense Industrial Cooperation, they had committed to “expeditiously conclude negotiations on Security of Supply Arrangement and Reciprocal Defense Procurement agreements.
India and the US had created a “2+2” format In September 2018, involving their foreign and defence ministers. The inaugural meeting was attended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, US Defense Secretary James Mattis, and their Indian counterparts Defence Minister N Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
With this annual format, the apex level supervision of defence issues went to the ministerial level from the earlier practice of using the Defence Policy Group comprising officials. The 2+2 format is an important instrument of the US in shaping relations with allies and partners. It has had such a 2+2 arrangement with Australia since 1985 and with Japan since September 2000
Additional Talks and Agreements
In the “2+2” meeting of October 2020, not only did India sign the BECA for geospatial cooperation, but it also positioned an Indian liaison officer at the NAVCENT, the Central Command’s naval headquarters in Bahrain. At the same time, a US Navy officer was deputed for the Information Fusion Center for the Indian Ocean Region in Gurugram, India. The two sides also took decisions to enhance their maritime information sharing and maritime domain awareness.
At the April 2022 India-US 2+2 meeting, India announced that it has joined the US-led Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Task Force (CMF) as an associate partner.
This partner grouping has 34 members and deals with four Joint Task Forces. It specialises in counter-narcotics, counter-smuggling, and counter-piracy. On Friday, it was revealed at the 2+2 meeting that India had become a full member of the CMF.
In addition, the two sides began talks to conclude a Space Situational Awareness Agreement as well as commence dialogues on defence space and defence AI in the near future.
In May 2023, India and the US conducted their inaugural Advanced Domains Defense Dialogue which had been decided on during the 2+2 ministerial dialogue in 2022.
This was at the level of sub-cabinet officials and the two sides exchanged views on new defence domains with an emphasis on space and artificial intelligence.
(The writer is a Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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