US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will pay a two-day visit to India starting Sunday. The visit is aimed at expanding the bilateral strategic engagement ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to Washington. Austin will meet Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday, June 5 and is expected to discuss several new defence cooperation projects that are set to be unveiled after Modi's talks with US President Joe Biden in Washington more than two weeks later, reported PTI. The US Secretary of Defence will arrive on June 4 from Singapore on a two-day visit. It will be Secretary Austin’s second visit to India, the previous one being in March 2021.
During the meeting, both leaders are also expected to discuss China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region as well as along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the ways to combat the threats of terrorism, reported PTI, citing people familiar with Austin's visit.
Germany's Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius will also visit India for bilateral talks with Singh on June 6. The German minister will be on a four-day visit to India beginning June 5, and will arrive from Indonesia, said the defence ministry in a statement.
During his visit, Boris Pistorius will meet a few defence start-ups at an event called Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) to be held in New Delhi. On June 7, he will visit Western Naval Command headquarters and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited in Mumbai, the ministry further stated.
According to PTI, the India-US defence strategic ties have been on an upswing in the last few years. Both countries have signed key defence and security pacts over the last few years, including the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016 that allows their militaries to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies.
Further, the two sides also signed the COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) in 2018, which provides for interoperability between the two militaries and the sale of high-end technology from the United States to India.
In October 2020, India and the US sealed the BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement) to further boost the bilateral defence ties, PTI reported. The pact provides for the sharing of high-end military technology, logistics and geospatial maps between the two countries.