NEW DELHI: Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles will be on an official visit to India from November 19-20. He will co-chair the second India-Australia 2+2 ministerial dialogue along with India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. A bilateral meeting on defence cooperation will also be held on November 20, followed by the 2+2 dialogue.
Besides, Rajnath Singh and Richard Marles, the 2+2 dialogue will be co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Australian counterpart 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.
The visit of Marles is expected to give a 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. It brings the ministers with important portfolios of defence and foreign affairs from the two sides.
India has held 2+2 meetings with Japan, United Kingdom and Russia. The first of any meeting on 2+2 pattern was held in 2018 with the US, followed by Japan in 2019 and Russia in 2021.
The bilateral relations between Australia and India were upgraded from ‘Strategic Partnership’ in 2009 to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2020. Over the years, an array of institutional mechanisms has been put in place to promote bilateral co-operation.
The India US 2+2 was held on November 11 as Rajnath Singh and Jaishankar met Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin. It was the fifth India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue.