Next week, Australia and India will have a “2+2” ministerial conversation
According to persons familiar with the situation, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles will visit India on Monday to participate in the two-plus-two ministerial meeting, which is expected to center on strengthening the two nations’ strategic alliances.
It has been reported that Wong and Marles, the deputy prime minister of Australia, would attend Sunday’s Cricket World Cup final in Ahmedabad between Australia and India.
No formal statement has been made on the “2+2” dialogue or Wong and Marles’ scheduled trip to India.
According to the individuals mentioned before, during the “2+2” ministerial conversation, the two sides are anticipated to concentrate heavily on strengthening their overall defense and security relations as well as their strategic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific area.
The Indian team to the negotiations would be led by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
The goal of the Quad or Quadrilateral alliance, which includes Australia and India, is to ensure a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. The United States and Japan are the other two members of the Quad.
September 2021 saw the first “2+2” ministerial conversation between Australia and India.
India has this kind of structure for negotiations with a select few nations, such the US and Japan.
The most recent meeting of the Indian-US ministers of defense and foreign policy was held in New Delhi on November 10.
Over the last several years, India and Australia’s bilateral defense and strategic relations have been strengthening.
India and Australia inked a historic agreement in June 2020 to provide each other reciprocal access to military sites for the purpose of supporting logistics, elevating their relationship to a complete strategic cooperation.
In addition to promoting the expansion of overall defense cooperation, the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) permits the military of the two nations to utilize each other’s facilities for supply replenishment and maintenance.
