The deepening of the security cooperation and partnership between the US and India will be among many topics that will be discussed during the 2+2 ministerial dialogue between them in New Delhi on Friday, the State Department has said ahead of the crucial meeting of foreign and defence ministers from the two nations.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will host their American counterparts Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on November 10.

“India is a country that we have a deep partnership (with). He (Blinken) will be going for the 2+2 security dialogue with Secretary of Defence Austin, so I expect, of course, that deepening the security cooperation and partnership will be one of the many topics that are discussed,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters at his daily news conference on Wednesday.

“It was something that was obviously raised during Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s state visit earlier this year, and I know the Secretary looks forward to being there and engaging directly with his counterparts on this,” Mr Patel said in response to a question.

Earlier, a senior State Department official said India and the US share the goal of preventing the spread of the current conflict in the Middle East, underlining that this would be an important topic of discussion during the 2+2 ministerial meeting in New Delhi.

The two sides would also discuss the Indo-Pacific region, Russia and Ukraine along with the bilateral issues.

“They will be travelling to India for the annual 2+2 Dialogue, in which they have extended discussions with their ministerial counterparts. The 2+2 Dialogue was created in 2018,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu told reporters on November 1.

“(The 2+2 dialogue) allows our two countries to have high-level discussions about strategic and defence issues. In addition, the Secretary will hold meetings with External Affairs Minister Jaishankar and other senior Indian officials,” Mr Lu said.

Responding to a question, Mr Lu acknowledged that China would be one of the topics of discussion.

“Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in terms of our efforts to support a free, open, secure, and prosperous Indo-Pacific is very much formally on the agenda. I think we will be interested to hear how India’s discussions with China are going related to border issues, and I’m sure our Indian counterparts will be very interested to hear about Wang Yi’s visit to the United States and the announced meeting between President (Joe) Biden and President Xi (Jinping) at the APEC Summit,” he said.

Mr Biden and Mr Xi are expected to meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to be held in San Francisco next week. 

The US cannot “get tough” with China because it depends on it for a modern way of life, Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has said, asserting that Washington needs to declare economic independence from Beijing.

The 38-year-old multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur made the comment on Wednesday during the Republican Party’s third presidential debate in Miami, Florida.

Indian-American presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott participated in the debate. Former US president Donald Trump, who is leading the race, did not participate in the debate again.

“Here’s why we can’t get tough with China. It’s because we depend on them for our modern way of life. And we have to declare economic independence from our enemy,” Mr Ramaswamy said.

“That’s the Declaration of Independence that Thomas Jefferson, at the age of 33, would have signed. And today, if he were alive, that’s the Declaration of Independence that I will sign as the next president,” Mr Ramaswamy said in response to a question.

Underlining that the actual defence industrial base of the US depends on China for the supply chain, he said, “For the F-35 jets, for the ships that we’re building. Think about this. Why are we stockpiling that if it isn’t to actually be strong against our enemy, China? We depend on them for that. Just like we depend on them for pharmaceuticals. Just like we depend on them for semiconductors.” 

“We need politicians who are independent of the forces that increase our dependence on China. My message to Xi Jinping is this, you are done buying land in this country. You will not donate to universities in this country. US businesses won’t expand into the Chinese market until you play by the same set of rules,” Mr Ramaswamy said.

He added that the US needs to increase its naval capacity by at least 20 per cent over the next several years.

“I think we have to, at minimum, be able to meet our AUKUS agreement standards. Right now, we are at risk of not even being able to meet our AUKUS standards with Australia and the UK. So, what we need to do is have a plan that reverses the trajectory of the divest to invest programme by 20 per cent over the next three years,” he said.

The AUKUS pact is a trilateral alliance between the UK, the US and Australia, seen as a counter to an aggressive China in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.

During the debate, Mr Ramaswamy alleged that fellow Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Haley called China a great friend of America while serving as the US Ambassador to the UN, “When she was UN Ambassador, called them literally her words, not my, ‘Our great friend’. You can’t be fair-weather fans of the right policy. Get to the root cause. Even US companies in Silicon Valley are regularly doing it,” he said.

Haley denied the allegations.

“When he talks about me praising China, he doesn’t know the fact that the reason China was praised was because I negotiated with China and Russia the largest set of sanctions against North Korea in a generation,” she said.

“That is literally the reason North Korea stopped testing ballistic missiles. So, I said China did good on their part. That was a negotiation you could never — had fought against China my entire career at the United Nations,” she added.

“You’ve brought them to South Carolina. … Look at the actual hard facts. You brought them to this country,” Mr Ramaswamy alleged.

“..By making sure no one could get any agency heads in the UN. I did it by making sure that we called them out on human rights. I did it by making sure that we held them accountable for everything that they did. That’s the reason we got out of the Human Rights Council. That’s the reason we called them out,” Ms Haley said in defence.

The two Indian Americans clashed on the debate stage multiple times. It started when Ramaswamy called Haley, former US vice president Dick Cheney in three-inch heels. The former South Carolina governor was the only woman on the debate stage.

“You have the likes of Nikki Haley, who stepped down from her time at the UN, bankrupt or in debt is — was her family. Then, she becomes a military contractor. She joins the board of Boeing and otherwise. And is now a multi-millionaire. So I think that that’s wrong when Republicans do it or Democrats do it. That’s the choice we face,” he alleged.

“Do you want a leader from a different generation who’s going to put this country first, or do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels?” Mr Ramaswamy said.

Haley blasted Mr Ramaswamy when her turn came soon thereafter.

“Yes. I’d first like to say they’re five-inch heels, and I don’t wear them unless you can run in them. The second thing that I will say is: that I wear heels. They’re not for a fashion statement. They’re for ammunition,” Ms Haley said amidst cheers from the audience.

She also blasted Mr Ramaswamy, asking him not to bring her daughters into the debate.

Mr Ramaswamy mentioned her daughter during the portion of the debate that discussed the ban on TikTok.

“I want to laugh at why Nikki Haley didn’t answer your question, which is about looking at families in the eye. In the last debate, she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok, while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time. So, you might want to take care of your family first before preaching to anybody else,” he said.

“Leave my daughter out of your voice,” a furious Ms Haley responded.

“Adult daughter,” Ramaswamy said as he was booed. “And that’s actually the point. You have her supporters propping her up. That’s fine. Here is the truth,” he said.

Talking about the multiple bills signed in August by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis prohibiting Chinese citizens from purchasing land in the state, Mr Ramaswamy said, “Bring in the CCP to South Carolina. What he left out though, Ron, and to be honest about it, there was a lobbying-based exemption in that bill that allowed Chinese nationals to buy land within a 20-mile radius of a military base lobbied for by one of your donors. So, I think we have to call a spade a spade.” Ramaswamy also asserted that his administration would ban any US company from transferring data to the Chinese.

“Here is a story most people don’t know. Airbnb hands over US user data to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Now, that’s a US-owned company. So, this is the problem when you have Republicans that temporarily go the way the winds blow, and now it’s popular to talk tough on China,” he said.

Speaking about Tiktok, he said, “Cut the virtue signalling. The fact of the matter is Democrats are on TikTok today. The only person, one of the few people who is putting up content the way the actual algorithms work, speaking for pro-Israel views or others, is me.” 

To counter the rising air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR), the Delhi government is planning to use artificial rain through cloud seeding. The mechanism is being developed by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur.  Environment Minister Gopal Rai met with a team from IIT Kanpur on November 8 to discuss the implementation of the cloud seeding. He informed that Delhi might experience artificial rainfall if the skies of the city remain cloudy on November 20-21.

Professor Manindra Agrawal from Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur shared some insights on the working and implementation of the process.

“IIT Kanpur has its own aircraft that has been attached with flares for implementing cloud seeding. We have also received approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the flares and aircraft. We can now carry on with the process of cloud seeding to create artificial rain wherever possible,” said Prof Agrawal.

“IIT Kanpur has been working and planning in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the past two months to introduce measures and steps for curbing air pollution in the national capital region with the help of cloud seeding,” said Prof Agarwal. “The Delhi government has recently reached out to the institute multiple times to seek help for creating artificial rain in the city,” he said.

Talking about the efficiency of the process, the professor added, “Countering or controlling pollution through cloud seeding is not a permanent solution. It is a temporary process and lasts for a maximum of two weeks. The dust particles present in the atmosphere are washed away in the artificial rains created and gets settled in the soil making the environment pollution-free. The process will result in a temporary relief to the people. Also, the artificial rains can be formed only at places where clouds are present. To eliminate pollution permanently from the atmosphere, we must try and work on introducing measures to counter the sources of pollution in the atmosphere.”

The Delhi NCR region is spread over an area of more than 1,000 square kilometres, he said. The institute will therefore require to do cloud seeding in a very large area. He also explained that creation of artificial rains depends on the presence and kind of clouds in a region which is not under human control. The cost of the entire process is quite expensive as the aircraft charges, its fuel maintenance, flares are a bit costly.