Alice Wells, the top American diplomat for South Asia, is arriving in New Delhi for the strategically important India-Japan-US trilateral dialogue beginning on Wednesday.
Union External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj Photo: AFP
Alice Wells, the top American diplomat for South Asia, is arriving in New Delhi for the strategically important India-Japan-US trilateral dialogue beginning on Wednesday.
During the course of her four-day visit, she will also meet senior Indian officials to discuss bilateral issues as well as regional and global developments.
Wells, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, will co-lead the U.S. delegation with Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton at the trilateral dialogue.
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The crucial dialogue between leading democracies has invariably been closely monitored in Beijing as China suspects that these three global powers were ganging up against it with a view to containing its influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
It is taking place within a week of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Tokyo for the strategic dialogue with Japan.
The trilateral dialogue was launched by the three countries in December 2011 when Hillary Clinton was the US Secretary of State. For the first few rounds, the was held at the director or assistant secretary level.
It was elevated to ministerial level in 2015. The inaugural ministerial trilateral was held on 29 September, 2015, in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. It was hosted by the then US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Sushma Swaraj and then Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida represented their respective countries. The last ministerial dialogue was also held in New York in September 2017.
After this trilateral dialogue, India and the US were scheduled to hold in mid-April their first 2+2 dialogue, involving the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries.
The dialogue has been postponed for now due to uncertainty over the confirmation of Mike Pompeo as President Donald Trump’s new Secretary of State.
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