US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on India visit from March 19

The United States defense secretary Lloyd Austin will be on an India visit from March 19 to 21 as part of his first overseas travel. This is the first in-person visit of any Biden admin minister to India and comes just two months after the new US President took charge.

Announcing his visit on Twitter, the US defence secretary said,  "I'll then travel to India to meet with my counterpart, Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh, and other senior national security leaders to discuss deepening the US-India Major Defense Partnership and advancing cooperation between our countries."

The US defense secretary will be visiting Japan, South Korea also. The Pentagon in a statement ahead of the weeklong visit starting March 13 to the region said that the focus will be on "advancing cooperation between our countries for a free, prosperous and open Indo-Pacific and Western Indian Ocean Region."

His visit comes in the backdrop of Quad--India, Australia, Japan and US leadership virtual meet. This is the first such meet at the leadership level for the group. Previous meetings of the group have been at senior official levels and at foreign ministers.

During the visit, he hold talks with Indian defense minister Rajnath Singh. The Indian defense ministry in its statement said, "Both sides are expected to discuss ways to further strengthen bilateral defense cooperation and exchange views on regional security challenges and common interests in maintaining a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region."

Both countries have increased defense partnerships in recent years. India signed four key defense pacts with US in the last few years. These were Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) in 2018 which enhanced information sharing and interoperability, the Industrial Security Annex (ISA), signed in December 2019 that allows for the transfer of technologies in support of defense production, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) to share unclassified geospatial information and the agreement on Navy-to-Navy Information Sharing in October 2020.

India has substantially increased its acquisition of US defense equipment with Indian forces operating US-sourced platforms such as P-8s, C-130Js, C-17s, AH-64s, CH-47s, Precision Guided-Excalibur Munitions, and M777 howitzers. In February, India agreed to acquire Apache and MH-60R multi-mission helicopters worth USD 3.1 billion and is considering other US systems.

US has sent its Laison officer for the Information Fusion Centre for the Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) based in Gurugram that keeps an eye on any movement in the Indian Ocean region. This is key to track the movement of Chinese vessels that have been encroaching the area. Both have been part of joint military-to-military exercises like TIGER TRIUMPH and MALABAR.