After the US Defence Secretary’s visit to India and meeting with PM Narendra Modi and NSA Ajit Doval, it was reported that India will get access to better technologies from the USA to strengthen its presence in the Indo-Pacific region. The defence leaders of the respective countries had a productive two-hour long meeting with both Lloyd and Doval getting each other’s insights on the Asian subcontinent’s security environment.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin’s meeting coincided with another high-level meeting between officials of the new Biden Administration and Chinese officials. While the diplomats from Biden’s administration accused China of threatening the world’s stability, the Chinese officials accused US in its human rights hypocrisy.

The US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the Chinese officials at Alaska. The two countries remained at odds with each other around the topics of cyberattacks and trade. After the first round of talks, US and China both publicly remained odds with each other on the TV cameras. It can be inferred that the public spat between the two countries can consequently have Beijing continue its way of democracy and will keep pushing back US and its allies.

Meanwhile, US Defence Sec Austin having a productive meeting with Indian diplomats has laid a solid foundation for the two sides to come together and make the QUAD union even stronger. The QUAD union is United States, India, Australia and Japan. The leaders from these 4 countries had a productive virtual meeting this month at the QUAD leaders’ summit where they pledged to work together to counter China’s challenges and create an open Indo-Pacific region.

While no defence deals or treaties have so far been signed during Sec Austin’s visit, the meeting with Indian Defence Minister could have helped Mr Austin to understand India’s hardware requirements to strengthen its presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

As updated earlier, India has already signed a 30-Predetor drones deal with USA along with letting its intention to buy 6 P8I anti-submarine warfare and surveillance aircrafts known. Moreover, the USA will also share technologies to India through which India can make much more powerful defence components for the twin-engine jet that’s being developed by the DRDO under the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative.

After his first day of the visit concluded, Austin took to twitter and shared how productive the meeting was.

“Great meeting with National Security Advisor Doval last night. The breadth of collaboration between our two nations reflects the significance of our Major Defence Partnership as we work together to address the most pressing challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region.” wrote the US Defence Sec.

After his arrival, the US Defence Sec called up PM Narendra Modi and then met the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Later Austin met the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Taking to Twitter, Mr. Modi wrote, “Pleasure to meet U.S. @SecDef Lloyd Austin today. Conveyed my best wishes to @POTUS @JoeBiden.”

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also welcomed Secretary Austin and said, “Mr. Austin. Your visit to India is definitely going to further deepen the cooperation and partnership between India and the United States. Looking forward to our meeting tomorrow.”

This is Mr. Austin’s first visit to India under the Biden administration. Visiting India is part of his 3-nation tour as Defence Secretary. Before coming to India, he visited Japan and South Korea.

It should be noted that the India-US Defence ties have strengthened in the past few years. So much so that back in June 2016, US considered India its “major defence partner“. US and India have also signed multiple defence treaties, including the LEMOA (Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement) in 2016 which allowed the militaries of both sides use each other’s bases for supply repair and refuelling.

In 2018, the two sides signed the COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) allowing both sides to operate the same communication systems, enabling interoperable environment.

Additionally, in 2020, India and US struck the BECA (Basic Exchange and Corporation Agreement) which will give the military of two nations the access to extremely accurate geo-spatial data and classified satellite data on defence-related issues.