IndiaTheNews Exclusive: What benefit did the country get from India’s recently concluded 2+2 talks with America and Australia?

This week in IndiaTheNews News Network’s special program Shaurya Path, we wanted to know from Brigadier Shri DS Tripathi (Retd) that what benefit did the country get from India’s recently concluded two plus two talks with America and Australia? In response, he said that these talks were fruitful. He said that America was busy in all kinds of talks to achieve ceasefire between Israel and Hamas but despite this it gave importance to two plus two talks with India and for this the US Defense and Foreign Ministers came to India. He said that this shows that relations between India and America are becoming very strong and both the countries give equal importance to this relationship. He said that we should also keep in mind that these talks took place around the same time when Chinese President Xi Jinping was on an important visit to America.

Brigadier Shri DS Tripathi (Retd) said that as far as the two plus two talks between India and Australia are concerned, it was also very meaningful. He said India and Australia have pledged to deepen their economic and security partnership and stressed their shared commitment to a “free, independent, inclusive and rules-based” Indo-Pacific. He said that this region is witnessing China’s increasing aggression. He said India and Australia underlined the importance of moving forward on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) negotiations and discussed the issue. Both countries discussed ways to move forward in facilitating greater movement of their students and professionals between the two countries. Apart from this, both the countries also discussed the situation in West Asia in detail. Both the countries also discussed the issue of terrorism, fundamentalism and extremism. In the second India-Australia ‘two plus two’ ministerial dialogue, both countries also underlined the importance of enhancing cooperation and exchange of information and awareness in the maritime domain. He said that as part of the ‘two plus two’ ministerial talks between Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the meeting with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong was very meaningful.

Brigadier Shri DS Tripathi (Retd) said that bilateral relations between India and Australia have strengthened rapidly in the last one year at a time when uncertainty is increasing in the world. He said China is the largest trading partner for both India and Australia and also the “biggest security concern”. He said that we share an ocean and in that sense we are neighbors and there has never been a more important time for our two countries to work together. He said India and Australia face “extraordinary challenges” and it is important for both countries to plan to deal with them.