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…