US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and secretary of defence Lloyd Austin will travel to New Delhi on November 10 to participate in the annual India-US 2+2 dialogue with their counterparts, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh, the State Department and Pentagon have announced.

The agenda of the talks will cover the entire gamut of the strategic relationship, with a focus on defence co-production. The top national security leaders will also talk about the Israel-Hamas war, with the US appreciating India’s position and saying that both countries have a common position against terror, ensuring humanitarian access to Gaza, preserving stability in the region, containing the conflict from spreading, and advancing a two-state solution. The talks will also cover Russia’s war in Ukraine and China, where both sides will share notes on their respective engagements with Beijing, officials have said.

The American cabinet members will also call on PM Narendra Modi during their visit. The visit and the dialogue are seen as a sign that despite differences between Delhi and Washington DC over Canada’s allegations linking agents of the government of India to the killing of a man designated as a terrorist by India, who happened to be a naturalised Canadian citizen, the broader India-US bilateral relationship is on track.

Announcing the visit on Wednesday, Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said that the American delegation with discuss “both bilateral and global concerns and developments in the Indo-Pacific”. The Pentagon, on Thursday, said that Austin’s focus in his engagement with Singh will be “expanding defense industrial cooperation, enhancing interoperability, and advancing innovation through the India-US Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X)”.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Donald Lu, the US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian, said, “The 2+2 dialogue was created in 2018. It allows our two countries to have high level discussions about strategic and defence issues…One of the many discussion points will be our cooperation with India to keep the Indo-Pacific free, open, prosperous and secure.”

Lu said that the leaders will also discuss both the conflict between Israel and Hamas and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“On Israel-Hamas, the Indian government was direct in its condemnation of the Hamas terrorist attack. It has also joined the chorus of nations including the US that have called for sustained humanitarian access to Gaza. With India, we share the goals of preventing this conflict from spreading, preserving stability in the Middle East and advancing a two-state solution,” Lu said.

He added that a key part of the 2+2 dialogue in recent years had been defence co-production. “Our intention is to encourage more collaboration to produce world class defence equipment to meet both Indian defence needs and contribute to greater global security.” Lu said that the leaders will also discuss democracy, human rights, clean energy, counter-terrorism, space, artificial intelligence and semiconductor manufacturing.

Asked about Canada’s allegations, Lu said that US had publicly and privately urged India to cooperate with Canada on the investigation into the allegations made by PM Justin Trudeau. “We have been in constant contact with our Canadian partners and we are hopeful that Canada’s investigation will proceed and perpetrators will be brought to justice.”

Asked if China would be the subject of discussion in Delhi, especially in the wake of Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to Washington DC last week, Lu said, “Absolutely. Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific…is very much formally on the agenda. We will be interested to hear how India’s discussions with China are going related to border issues and I am sure our Indian counterparts will be very interested to hear about Wang Yi’s visit to the US and the announced meeting between President Biden and President Xi (Jinping) at the APEC summit.” The US and Chinese presidents will meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco in mid-November, as HT had first reported in September.

The last 2+2 dialogue was held in April 2022 in Washington DC. While there has been a delay in holding this year’s dialogue due to scheduling issues, the top leaders of both countries have had a series of high-level engagements. Blinken has visited India twice this year for G20 events, including accompanying Biden during the Leaders’ Summit in September. Austin visited India in the run-up to the Modi’s state visit to Washington DC in June when the two countries finalised the defence industrial cooperation road map. And Jaishankar visited DC both in June with the PM and then in September.

Blinken will arrive in Delhi after visiting Israel, Jordan, Japan and South Korea while Austin will head to South Korea and Indonesia after his engagements in Delhi.