Mr Shringla and Secretary of State Antony Blinken reviewed the developments in Afghanistan when they met, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted. They also discussed the Indo-Pacific region, Covid-19 pandemic and discussed cooperation at the UN, where India is an elected member, and other regional and multilateral issues, the tweet said. Sherman tweeted after her meeting with Shringla that she met him “to discuss shared priorities including coordination on Afghanistan, strengthening Indo-Pacific cooperation via the Quad, and addressing the climate crisis and the Covid-19”. Mr Bagchi said in a tweet that Mr Shringla also met the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and the US-India Business Council. He spoke to the US ISPF on India’s economic recovery, the pandemic situation and measures to facilitate investments into India, Mr Bagchi said in another tweet.

Also other senior Indian and US defense and diplomatic officials discussed the recent developments in the region and cooperation in counter-terrorism at a meeting that is regularly scheduled between the 2+2 ministerial-level meeting. The Indian side at the dialogue was led by the Defence Ministry’s Joint Secretary, International Cooperation, Somnath Ghosh, and the External Affairs Ministry’s Joint Secretary, Americas, Vani Rao, and the US side by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Ervin Massinga. At the meeting, “Mr Ratner expressed his confidence that the United States and India will continue to take their partnership to new heights as they jointly meet the challenges of this century”, Defence Department spokesperson Lt Col Martin Meiners said. “Cooperation in new domains, such as space, cyber, and emerging technology areas” also figured in their talks, he added.

The last 2+2 ministerial dialogue was held in New Delhi in October 2020 just before the US elections. At the time the US was represented by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mark Esper, both of whom are now out of office, and India by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The next 2+2 is to be held later this year in Washington.