India and United States will hold today (27th) a “2+2” dialogue meeting with the participation of the foreign ministers and defense ministers of the two countries. According to Reuters, the dialogue is expected to further strengthen the strategic relationship between India and the United States.
US Secretary of Defense Esper and Secretary of State Pompeo arrived in New Delhi on the 26th and will attend the “2+2” dialogue meeting between the Indian and US Foreign Ministers on the 27th. The India-US “2+2” dialogue mechanism started in 2018, and the first two were held in New Delhi in 2018 and Washington in 2019. The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the agenda of the third dialogue meeting will cover all bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest.
According to the “India Express” report, an important part of the India-US “2+2” Dialogue is the signing of the “Geographical Space Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement.”
This will be the fourth basic military agreement between India and the United States after signing the General Military Information Security Agreement in 2002, the Logistic Exchange Agreement Memorandum in 2016, and the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement in 2018.
Indian media said that the signing of the new agreement will enable India to share US spatial geographic intelligence and improve the accuracy of automated hardware systems and weapons such as ballistic missiles and drones. Some analysts believe that these four agreements represent different levels of military cooperation between the two sides.
At the fourth level, India and the United States have reached the level of “quasi-ally” in terms of military intelligence information exchange, at least theoretically.
In addition, the timing of this dialogue meeting is also very delicate. It is very close to the voting day of the US general election on November 3. Pompeo visited Asia twice within a month and met with the Indian Foreign Minister for the second time. The United States is wooing India. The meaning is obvious.
According to US media reports, the agreement signed at the US-India “2+2” ministerial talks is aimed at strengthening US-Indian cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
What impact will the signing of the agreement have on the situation in the Asia-Pacific? Afterwards, Pompeo will also visit Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other countries. What was Pompeo’s intention to visit many countries in Asia during this period?
Special commentator Su Xiaohui believes that if the U.S.-India Agreement on Basic Geospatial Exchange and Cooperation is signed, it means that the two countries have completed the signing of three important military agreements that support the two countries, so that the two sides can improve their military security. Comprehensive and smooth communication and cooperation.
This move is also conducive for the United States to further advance the security framework of the United States, Japan, Australia and India and to create the Indo-Pacific version of the “Little NATO” in the United States.
Although the implementation of the agreement requires further actions by both parties, the current diplomatic trends and the indication of the intentions of both parties are for the current United States an important benchmark for the Indo-Pacific strategy under Trump.
Su Xiaohui analyzed that another purpose of Pompeo’s trip was to sow discord and the relationship between China and the country he visited. Pompeo may discuss the South China Sea issue with the visiting country this time, and even further provoke the direction of future negotiations on the South China Sea Code of Conduct, and create obstacles as much as possible to disturb the situation in the South China Sea.
