Biden and Modi to meet online before high-level talks between US and India

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold an online meeting with US President Joe Biden on Monday, ahead of the 2+2 ministerial dialogue, officials in Washington and New Delhi said.

The two leaders will review ongoing bilateral co-operation and exchange views on recent developments in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific region and global issues of mutual interest, India's foreign ministry said.

“The virtual meeting will enable both sides to continue their regular and high-level engagement aimed at further strengthening the bilateral Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership,” the ministry said.

New Delhi and Washington will hold a fourth round of 2+2 dialogue, the highest form of bilateral discussions between the two countries.

India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar have travelled to Washington for the two-day meeting with their US counterparts, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.

The dialogue comes during a period of friction between India and the US over New Delhi’s stand on Russia's offensive in Ukraine.

New Delhi has repeatedly refused to condemn Moscow's military aggression and at the UN abstained from US-sponsored resolutions against its Cold War-ally Russia.

Narendra Modi at the Digital India dinner held at Fairmont Hotel in San Jose on Saturday, September 26, 2015. The event was attended by Silicon Valley CEOs including Sundar Pichai of Google, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, John Chambers of Cisco and Shantanu Narayan of Adobe. Shweta Gulati via AP

Narendra Modi speaks about India's digital initiatives at the Google campus in Mountain View, California on September 27, 2015. Elijah Nouvelage / Reuters

Narendra Modi, centre, walks the hallways of Google headquarters alongside Google executive Sundar Pichai, right, on Sunday, September 27, 2015, in Mountain View, California. After meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook headquarters, Mr Modi scheduled meetings with the CEOs of Apple and Google during his whirlwind tour of Silicon Valley. Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Photo

Narendra Modi addresses the crowd during a community reception at SAP Center in San Jose, California on September 27, 2015. Stephen Lam / Reuters

Narendra Modi speaks during a town hall meeting at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, on Sunday, September 27, 2015. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Attendees use mobile phones to take photographs of Narendra Modi, India's prime minister and Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc., as the arrive for a town hall meeting at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S., on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015. Prime Minister Modi plans on connecting 600,000 villages across India using fiber optic cable as part of his "dream" to expand the world's largest democracy's economy to $20 trillion. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

India shares close diplomatic and strategic ties with Russia and relies heavily on it for weaponry.

New Delhi has further deepened its trade ties with Moscow and bought millions of barrels of Russian crude oil, despite western sanctions.

The two countries are planning to bypass the economic sanctions by introducing a rupee-rouble mechanism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on a visit to New Delhi earlier in April.

Mr Biden in March said India’s stand on the crisis was “somewhat shaky” and a top US official warned New Delhi of “consequences” if it defied US sanctions.

The White House last week said Mr Biden believes Washington’s partnership with New Delhi is “one of the most important relationships” it has in the world.

Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history

Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)

Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.

Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)

A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.

Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)

Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.

Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)

Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.