Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and acting Defence Secretary of the United States Patrick M Shanahan has discussed bilateral ties between the two countries in a telephonic conversation, said Defence sources. According to the Defence sources, the discussion between the two leaders took place a couple of days ago.

Shanahan, who was earlier holding the office of the Deputy Secretary of Defence, took charge as Acting US Secretary of Defence from January 1.Recently in the second week of January, a 2+2 Inter-Sessional meeting was held between the US and India, focusing on the progress of defence and foreign policy issues between the two countries.The Indian delegation was led jointly by Joint Secretary (AMS) from the Ministry of External Affairs Gourangalal Das, and Joint Secretary (PIC) from the Ministry of Defence, Shambhu S Kumaran.The US delegation was led jointly by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells and Assistant Secretary of Defence Randall Schriver.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.Both India and the US also exchanged views on regional developments as partners and stakeholders for a free, open, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific.

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