US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit cements strong US-India relations

The Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin arrived in New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, on a three-day visit marking the final leg of his Asian tour which involved similar visits to Japan and South Korea. This is a first visit by a US Secretary of Defence, under the new Joe Biden’s administration and is aimed at stepping up the bilateral engagement between the two democracies.

Lloyd’s confidence in the good relations between the two countries could be reflected in his tweet after landing here, “Thrilled to be here in India. The breadth of cooperation between our two nations reflects the significance of our major defense partnership, as we work together to address the most pressing challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region.”

The expected focus points of the meeting were the Indo-China standoff at the Galwan Valley which necessitates a strong Indo-Pacific alliance, threat posed by terrorist outfits in Pakistan and lastly India's rising stakes and critical position in the peace process in Afghanistan.

After the meeting, the Prime Minister office let out a statement saying, “Prime Minister outlined his vision for the strategic partnership between the two countries and emphasized the important role of bilateral defence cooperation ties in India-US ties. He requested Secretary Austin to convey his best wishes to President Biden.”

The Secretary of Defence is in Asia to strengthen military cooperation with American allies and develop "credible deterrence" against China. Hence, the talks are expected to include India's decision to buy 30 armed Predator drones from the US for all three services for an estimated $3 billion. The Predator-B drones from General Atomics, a US defence company, are capable of continue remaining in air for 35 hours and can chase targets both on land and sea.

On Friday night, the Pentagon Chief met with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval .Today, Lloyd is set to meet with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. It is also possible that he will interact with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.