Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Dr. Ely Ratner co-chaired the sixth U.S.-India 2+2 Intersessional Dialogue in New Delhi this month along with Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu.
From India, Additional Secretary Vani Rao of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, and Colonel Shailender Arya of the Indian Ministry of Defense were present.
The Dialogue advanced an ambitious set of initiatives across the breadth of the U.S.-India partnership, including defense and security, science and technology, climate, public health, trade, and people-to-people ties.
On the defense side, Assistant Secretary Ratner and his counterparts discussed a range of leading regional security issues, including recent developments in East Asia.
The officials also reviewed progress toward operationalizing major bilateral initiatives on information-sharing, defense industrial cooperation, and joint service engagements to support combined, multi-domain operations. They committed to expanding cooperation in new domains such as space, cyber, artificial intelligence, and other defense technology areas.
During their visit, the officials also chaired the fifth Maritime Security Dialogue, last held in 2019 in Monterey.
During this Dialogue the U.S. and Indian officials discussed ways to expand U.S.-India collaboration both bilaterally and with like-minded nations, including Australia, Japan, and European partners.
They identified new opportunities to coordinate capacity-building activities in South and Southeast Asia, deepen logistics cooperation, and drive forward high-end Navy-to-Navy cooperation to address challenges, including in the undersea domain.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
