Washington: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit New Delhi next week to meet his Indian counterpart. The Pentagon has announced this. The visit is taking place ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit next month. The Pentagon on Thursday announced the Defense Minister’s visit to Japan, Singapore, India and France next week. It said Austin will meet Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and other leaders in New Delhi as part of an exercise to strengthen the key US-India defense partnership.
The Pentagon said, “The visit provides an opportunity to usher in new defense innovation and industrial collaboration and accelerate ongoing efforts to expand operational cooperation between the US and Indian militaries.” Will start his visit from Japan on his seventh official visit. In Tokyo, he also plans to meet Japanese Defense Minister Yasukasu Hamada and other senior leaders as well as US troops stationed in Japan.
From there, Austin will travel to Singapore where he will address the 20th ‘Shangri-La Dialogue’ of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). After Singapore, Austin will travel to New Delhi and then to France to participate in D-Day (79th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy) events.
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