Australian foreign secretary Frances Adamson and secretary defence Greg Moriarty will hold their first meeting with their Indian countrparts foreign secretary S. Jaishankar and defence secretary Sanjay in the first “2+2” dialogue between the two countries on December 12.
The new format was agreed upon The talks format proposed in the joint statement in 2014 during former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot’s visit to India but is more significant now when India and Australia have got much closer in their strategic relationship, particularly in the Indo-Pacific space, Indian media reported.
The bilateral talks will be followed by the fourth India-Australia-Japan Trilateral. Foreign Secretaries of the three countries will hold deliberations on 13th December with the Indo-Pacific situation, terrorism and the Korean Crisis top of the agenda.
These meetings will take place at a time when Indian External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is hosting Russian and Chinese foreign ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi for another meeting of the Russia-India-China trilateral on December 11 in New Dehli.
Australia and India last month attended revived Quadrilateral dialogue including US and japan at the level of joint secretaries in Manila on the sidelines of ASEAN summit.
