As the world's oldest and largest democracies celebrate 75 years of their diplomatic relations, diplomatic and defence leaders of India and the United States discussed expanding their cooperation into new defence areas like space and cyberspace to enable their militaries to jointly meet the challenges of this century in quest of  “common strategic interests”.

Extending multinational cooperation beyond the Indo-Pacific to Europe was also on the table at their annual 2+2 Ministerial in Washington Monday, on a day when US President Joe Biden also held a virtual summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  

Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and US  Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin “committed to deepening cooperation in new defence domains, such as space and cyberspace, as the U.S. and Indian militaries jointly meet the challenges of this century”, a readout issued by the Pentagon after the meeting said.

They “discussed ways to coordinate more closely with like-minded nations -- including Australia, Japan, and European partners – to ensure that our shared principles of the rule of law, freedom of the seas, and respect for the territorial integrity of sovereign states prevail today and far into the future”.

“In support of India’s leading role as a net security provider, the leaders discussed new opportunities to coordinate more closely together to ensure that the United States and India’s shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region continues to thrive”, the statement said. 

“As the Indian military emerges as a more jointly integrated force, the 2+2 Ministerial advanced initiatives that will allow the U.S. and Indian militaries to work more seamlessly together across all domains of potential conflict, from the seas to cyberspace,” the readout said. 

"Beijing is eroding the security of the Indo-Pacific region from its construction of dual-use infrastructure along your border to its unlawful claims in the South China Sea, and we will continue to stand alongside you as you defend your sovereign interests," Austin was quoted as saying.

The statement further said: “The United States and India finalised major bilateral initiatives on information-sharing, liaison exchanges, and joint service engagements to support high-end, combined operations”. 

Agreeing to “continue charting an ambitious course in the US-India partnership,” they “forged new and deeper cooperation across the breadth of the U.S.-India partnership, including defence, science and technology, trade, climate, public health, and people-to-people ties”, the readout added. 

On the contentious issue of Ukraine, where India and the US have diverged in some of their approaches, the leaders appeared to have found unanimity on humanitarian assistance and brutality in Bucha.

The readout said, “They agreed to maintain close consultations on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, including on humanitarian assistance efforts, and echoed support for an independent investigation into the brutal violence deployed against civilians in Bucha”.

Earlier, following the virtual summit between Biden and Modi, a senior US official said that the “tight links between” China and Russia are going to influence India’s attitude to global developments. 

“Prime Minister Modi took the opportunity to share his views in a pretty candid way about what’s going on”, the official said on Monday. “We know that India has concerns about the links between Russia and China.  India, of course, is facing a very tense situation along the Line of Actual Control.  And when India sees the tight links between China and Russia, that’s obviously going to impact their thinking”, the official said.

On the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the official said that Biden and Modi had a “very candid conversation” on a range of issues related to it, but  Biden did not make a concrete request to Modi about the Ukraine situation and the Indian leader gave no definite assurance, the official who briefed reporters on the condition of not being identified said.

The official said that Biden “took the opportunity to continue the close consultations we’ve been having with India at a number of different levels across our government and over the course of many weeks on Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine”.  

“The US and India are partnering and consulting on mitigating the most destabilizing impacts, both on global food supply and other commodity markets”, the official added.

One reporter suggested that the meeting was an “opportunity for the President to try to push India to be — you know, essentially to take a side here, as opposed to the sort of neutral position”.

The official said, “India is going to make its own judgments”. 

In recent days India made some “pretty strong statements in New York condemning the killings of civilians, supporting calls for an independent investigation”, the official said.  

“India is also providing humanitarian relief material to Ukraine, including medicine and other supplies”, the official added. 

On India’s energy purchases, the official said, “We don’t think India should accelerate or increase imports of Russian energy.  And the US is ready to support India, remain in a conversation with India about its diversification of imports”.

The official pointed out that India’s current imports from Russia are about 1 to 2 per cent of its total energy imports and payments for energy are exempt from current sanctions”.  

The official said that Biden and Modi discussed the situation in South Asia touching on developments in Sri Lanka, in Bangladesh.

(SAM)