President Biden, PM Modi Virtual Talks Today Ahead Of 2+2 Ministerial

11:00 ET 16: BST: US President Joe Biden will hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today during an increasingly tense period of Indo-US relations.

• The talks, held virtually, will be the first direct talks between Modi and Biden since the war in Ukraine began.
• The talks will precede a 2+2 ministerial dialogue between Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Indian counterparts Rajnath Singh and S Jaishankar.
• Biden, Blinken, and Austin are expected to press India to engage more deeply with the alliance of democrat states in taking action against Russia.
• The US is expected to suggest alternatives to Delhi procuring discounted Russian oil and may offer a greater level of military support to India as part of a strategy to ween India off Russian military hardware.
• India is part of the Quad alliance (US, Japan, Australia, Indian) but has so far been unwilling to directly condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, choosing to abstain from UN votes.
• Although, India needs US support in mitigating Chinese influence in South Asia, a point which will be emphasised by Biden and Blinken, it is unlikely that today's high-level talks will compel a significant diplomatic pivot.
• India has intimated that they will be a willing to set up a ruble, rupee mechanism for oil transactions, a move which has been seen by Washington as tacit approval of Moscow, and spoken at continuing a doctrine of neutrality in international affairs.