India a key strategic partner, US dedicated to advancing this partnership: White House ahead of 2+2 dialogue

“India is a key strategic partner of the US and we’re dedicated to advancing that partnership, every single day,” said a top White House official ahead of the India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue scheduled in New Delhi on November 10. The White House official also said it is for New Delhi to decide what their stance is going to be on any particular crisis or contingency around the world including the Middle East. “India is a key strategic partner, and I think you saw that on full display when Prime Minister Modi was here,” John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House said at a news conference in Washington. “But we’ll leave it to the Indian government and to the prime minister to decide what their stance is going to be on any particular crisis or contingency around the world, to include the Middle East,” Kirby said. “They (India) remain a key strategic partner. And we’re dedicated to advancing that partnership every single day,” he added.

#WATCH | John Kirby, NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications on PM Modi's state visit to the US says, "India is a key strategic partner. And I think you saw that on full display when Prime Minister Modi was here. But we'll leave it to the Indian government and the Prime… pic.twitter.com/ajWGGV1MRU

— ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2023

The statement made by Kirby was in line with what a senior State Department official, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu, told earlier this month. Lu had stressed that India and the US share the goal of preventing the spread of conflict in the Middle East and advancing a two-state solution for Palestine. India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar will host their US counterparts Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Friday (November 10) for the high-stakes annual talks in New Delhi. “The 2+2 will enable a high-level review of progress being made in cross-cutting aspects of defence and security cooperation, technology value chain collaborations and people-to-people ties,” the MEA said in a statement. With inputs from agencies