US Secretary of Defense Lloyd James Austin arrived in India on Friday and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India National Security Adviser Ajit Duval during his first three-day visit.
During the meeting with the Prime Minister of India, the US Secretary of Defense stressed the US interest in further expanding strategic cooperation between the two countries in order to ensure peace, stability, and development in the India-Pacific region and beyond.
The Office of the Prime Minister of India issued a statement saying that Narendra Modi, in turn, stressed the important role of defense cooperation in bilateral relations between India and the United States.
The United States Secretary of Defense, General (Retd.) Lloyd J. Austin, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the start of a three-day visit to India, the first such outreach by the new U.S. administration less than two months after President Biden assumed office.
“India and the U.S. are committed to our strategic partnership that is a force for global good,” Mr. Modi said in a tweet after the meeting on Friday evening.
“The Indian Prime Minister welcomed the warm and close relationship between the two countries, which is rooted in shared values of democracy, pluralism, and commitment to a rules-based order,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
Mr. Austin, who will meet Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on March 20, is expected to discuss Indo-U.S. strategic cooperation, defense sales and technology transfer, as well as Indo-Pacific strategy as a part of the Quad. In addition, he is likely to deliver a message on the U.S.’s concerns over India’s plans to take delivery of the Russian S-400 missile defense system later this year, which could attract U.S. sanctions under its CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) law.
Ahead of Mr. Austin’s visit, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee leader Senator Robert Menendez had also written a letter urging him to raise concerns over what Mr. Menendez called an “ongoing crackdown” by the Modi government on farmers and journalists, and other issues, including the amendment of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the Citizenship Amendment Act.
