Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, June 5: Rajnath Singh, the Indian Defence Minister, and Lloyd Austin, his American counterpart, had extensive discussions on a range of topics, including regional security issues, the Indo-Pacific, and other important areas of India-US defence cooperation.
Over two weeks prior to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington, the US Defence Secretary began a two-day visit in New Delhi on Sunday.
People who are familiar with Austin’s visit before the meetings indicated that his conversations with Singh will centre on a number of important areas of collaboration, including the transfer of crucial technologies for the co-development of military hardware.
A guard of honour was presented to Secretary Austin prior to the talks at the Manekshaw Centre.
“I’m returning to India to meet with key leaders for discussions about strengthening our Major Defense Partnership. Together, we’re advancing a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the US defence secretary tweeted on Sunday.
According to the aforementioned sources, Singh and Austin will likely talk about a General Electric proposal to share fighter jet engine technology with India and New Delhi’s plan to purchase 30 MQ-9B armed drones from US defence giant General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc for more than USD 3 billion, among other things.
