India and the US on Friday discussed ways to expand bilateral cooperation on defence and foreign policy issues and exchanged views on regional developments as stakeholders for a free, open, inclusive and peaceful Indo-Pacific.

The inaugural round of the India-US 2+2 inter-sessional meeting was held here with the Indian delegation led jointly by Gourangalal Das, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and Shambhu S Kumaran, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence, while the US side was headed jointly by Ambassador Alice Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Randall Schriver, Assistant Secretary of Defense.

The inter-sessional meeting was set up to follow up on the decisions taken during the India-US Ministerial 2+2 Dialogue, the first round of which was held in New Delhi in September 2018, and to make continued progress on bilateral cooperation on cross-cutting defence and foreign policy issues of interest to both sides, the MEA said in a statement.

The two sides also exchanged views on regional developments as partners and stakeholders for a free, open, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific, it said.

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