US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will arrive in India on Sunday for a two-day visit to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral strategic engagement ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington. According to sources acquainted with Austin’s visit, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the US defense secretary would discuss a number of new defense cooperation projects that will be disclosed following Modi’s talks with US President Joe Biden in Washington more than two weeks later. According to sources, the talks between Singh and Austin on Monday would likely cover China’s aggressive behavior in the Indo-Pacific region as well as along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), as well as strategies to address the threat of terrorism. Austin will be visiting India for the second time. His last visit to the country was in March 2021.
According to the government, Germany’s Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius will also visit New Delhi on June 6 for bilateral meetings with Singh. It is expected that a variety of bilateral defense cooperation issues, with a focus on industrial cooperation, will be discussed during Singh’s discussions with Austin and Pistorius. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and German Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius are visiting New Delhi for bilateral talks with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. In recent years, India-US defense and strategic ties have grown stronger.
The two countries have signed several major defense and security treaties in recent years, including the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016, which allows both forces to use each other’s bases for supply repair and replenishment. In 2018, the two sides also inked the COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement), which permits for military interoperability and the export of high-end equipment from the US to India.
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