Prime Minister Modi and US President Biden would hold a virtual meeting on Monday. The US sought the meeting ahead of the 2+2 bilateral engagement between foreign policy and defense officials of the two nations.
In a statement, the white house said, “Biden-Modi meeting aims to deepen the ties between our countries, economies, and our people.”
The statement further added that President Biden would continue his close consultations on the consequences of Russia’s ‘brutal war’ against Ukraine and explore ways to mitigate its destabilizing impact on global food supply and commodity markets.
However, India skipped any mention of Ukraine in its official announcement. Instead, India’s MEA said, “The two leaders will review bilateral cooperation and exchange views on recent developments in South Asia, the Indo-Pacific region, and global issues of mutual interest.”
The ministry added that the focus would be to continue regular engagement to strengthen the bilateral comprehensive global strategic partnership between India and the US.
The 2+2 engagement will see India’s External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, US Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of State Austin discuss various subjects of mutual interest–notably, countering climate crisis, ending the pandemic, strengthening the global economy and indo-pacific security.
However, the Ukraine issue is said to predominate. In a recent statement, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said, “We would prefer that India move away from their long-term history of non-alignment G77 partnership with Russia.”