NEW DELHI: India and the US plan to spend most of their first high-level dialogue discussing their new dominant policy in the newly minted "Indo-Pacific". In their first 2+2 dialogue, the two sides exchanged notes on how they will roll out their Indo-Pacific policies. It will be critical to the future of the Quadrilateral grouping, the newest multilateral created to counter China’s expansionism in this region.The discussions will be central to the India-US strategic convergence that forms the core of the relationship. The Quad may meet for the second time this year on the margins of the East Asia Summit in November. Despite being instrumental in the creation of the Quad, the Indian government continues to paper over its strategic significance, by confining it as just another grouping of four countries.After Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined the contours of India’s Indo-Pacific policy at the Shangri La Dialogue in June, India has defined it less in security terms and more in terms of a region of growing Indian influence. For the present, India looks at the Indo-Pacific in economic and political terms, with a security aspect to be added later in the game.Confirming that this would be a big item on the 2+2 agenda, top sources familiar with developments said, “The Indo-Pacific is not a mechanism or an architecture at this point. It is an idea in which India’s future in a security and economic sense lies as a growth corridor. In that context, there are bilateral and multilateral mechanisms. Other countries have the same. The Indo-Pacific is open and inclusive as far as India is concerned.”Earlier this week, Randall Shriver, senior US official in the Pentagon said China’s rise and how to respond to it would be “front and centre” of the discussions this week. Speaking at an event in Washington, Shriver said while the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy was not aimed at any particular region, Chinese behavior was increasingly a matter of concern, because it included “coercive approaches towards internal politics of others,” indicating “they have a different aspiration for the region.”