New Delhi. Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale on July 7, exchanged views on a number of regional and global issues of shared interests during the virtual foreign office consultations between the two countries.

“Both officials look forward to this year’s US-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue and pledged to remain in close contact on regional and international issues of mutual concern,” US State Department said.

A release from Indian Ministry of External Affairs said: “they agreed to remain in touch and move forward on the bilateral agenda through a range of mechanisms like the 2+2 Ministerial that India will host later this year”.

The United States had reaffirmed its support to India for its permanent role in a reformed United Nations Security Council during the second annual India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in Washington last year.

The second annual meeting had undertaken a comprehensive review of cross-cutting foreign policy and defence and security issues in the bilateral relationship between two countries.

The high-level mechanism was hosted by the US State Department and attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, along with their American counterparts Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mark Esper on December 18 last year.