US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to visit India to discuss partnership

NEW YORK: On the heels of the Quad summit, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit India next week to meet Defence Minister Rajnath Singh as Washington focuses on China as an emerging threat, according to a Pentagon official.

In New Delhi, Austin will "discuss operationalising the major defence partnership that we have with India, including through enhanced information sharing, regional security cooperation, defence trade, and cooperation in new domains", Acting Assistant Defence Secretary for Indo-Pacific, David F. Helvey said on Friday after the Quad summit.

He said India is "an important strategic partnership that involves cooperation with like-minded nations committed to protecting the rules-based international order".

Reflecting President Joe Biden's strategic priority focus shifting to the Indo-Pacific, India is included in Austin's first trip abroad that also has US treaty partners Japan and South Korea in its itinerary.

During the past year, India has faced border incursions by China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh and clashes, with one in May 2020, resulting in the deaths of soldiers on both sides.

During Friday's Quad summit of Biden and Prime Ministers Narendra Modi of India, Yoshihide Sugo of Japan and Scott Morrison of Australia, they discussed freedom of navigation and "freedom from coercion" in the South and East China Seas, which are basically about China. The North Korea nuclear issue and the Myanmar coup also figured in the summit agenda.

Helvey said that Austin has "signalled a very early interest in focusing the department on China. He has identified China as the pacing threat and the pacing challenge for the Department".

"His initial steps kind of demonstrate that this is going to be an area of continued focus, and the participation in this trip, follow-on travel to India, will provide an opportunity for exchange of views early on with key allies and partners about how we can work together and expand cooperation to support a rules-based international order." Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be with Austin for a part of the trip when they hold 2+2 meetings of the top defence and diplomacy officials in Tokyo and Seoul. But Blinken will not be coming to New Delhi, where a 2+2 dialogue was held last October. (IANS)

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