Washington, United States: The United States Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, recently mentioned that both nations have assured the promotion of a resilient and rules-based international order to safeguard the “free, open, and inclusive” Indo-Pacific.
This remark has been shared after a 2+2 ministerial dialogue between US State Secretary Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s interaction with their Indian counterparts.
He further emphasized that the United States and India have been taking important steps toward strengthening the defense partnership. Additionally, he emphasized that the ministries, during the dialogue, discussed the ongoing conflicts between Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas, according to an Indian news agency – ANI.
Garcetti shared this statement during an event in New Delhi, India; according to ANI, he said, “I think the joint statement (2 2 Dialogue) reflects both countries’ resolve to promote resilient rules-based international order to safeguard free open and inclusive Indo-Pacific through the Quad and other metrics, global issues.”
The US envoy added, “The ministers discussed the tragic humanitarian consequences to the conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, reiterating their stance with Israel against terrorism, but also seeking to alleviate civilian suffering and adherence to international humanitarian law.”
Major investments between the US and India
He expressed that the United States has been anticipating that the country will be welcoming new visitors in December and January. Garcetti further emphasized that the nation is also looking forward to many major investments of the US private sector in Indian technology.
“We made important steps toward strengthening our major defense partnership, which continues to grow, increasing the acceleration that we have seen through initiatives like the roadmap US-India in industrial cooperation and defense,” he was quoted saying.
Deep conversation about Artificial Intelligence
Along with this, the minister also outlined that the administrations of the United States and India must commence conversations related to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“India-US collaboration and cooperation in emerging domains, and also more importantly, because we sometimes just focus on weapons and what’s being sold, or potentially co-developed. But the operational level of our militaries, which I think is as critical as any equipment, and our countries discuss ways to deepen our science and our technology partnerships to harness technology with the global good instead of technology that harms us than divides us, technology that can connect us and protect us,” he elaborated.
Speeding up Indian visas
Besides this, he took the platform to highlight that the administration of the United States has engaged with the Indian authorities to appoint more staff at consulates – resulting in speeding up visas.
2+2 Ministerial Dialogue 2023
New Delhi recently hosted a 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between India and the United States. The meeting specifically hosted US State Secretary Blinken and US State Secretary Austin and their Indian counterparts, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
The Ministerial Dialogue witnessed discussions about various key topics, including bilateral and global matters. The ministers gave special focus to the urgent developments in the Indo-Pacific region.