US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Defence Secretary Mark Esper will visit India for the two-plus-two ministerial dialogue

India and the US will hold their third India-US two-plus-two ministerial dialogue in New Delhi on October 27, where the two sides will hold comprehensive discussions on cross-cutting bilateral issues of mutual interest.

“The two sides will also exchange views on regional and international issues,” Ministry of External Affairs’ spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said during a weekly press briefing on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Defence Secretary will visit India to hold two-plus-two ministerial dialogue.

As per the MEA spokesperson, both Secretary of State and Defence Secretary will have bilateral meetings with their counterparts-S Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh. The two American leaders are also scheduled to meet NSA Ajit Doval and make a joint call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The MEA spokesperson said India and the US enjoy comprehensive global strategic partnership and under this rubric, “all salient global and regional issues are discussed.”

With regard to the timing of the two-plus-two ministerial dialogue, the MEA spokesperson said, “Diplomatic calendars have their logic. Earlier two meetings of the two-plus-two dialogue were also held at the end of the year.”