US Defence Secy to visit India next week, meet Rajnath

Austin’s trip will begin on March 13 with a visit to the US Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters in Hawaii, followed by visits to Japan, Republic of Korea and India, where he will hold talks with senior government leaders, said a statement issued by the US Department of Defence on Wednesday.

This will be the first Cabinet-rank official visit to India from the US since the Joe Biden administration assumed office on January 20.

Responding to Austin’s tweet sharing the US Department of Defence’s statement on his visit, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted, “Looking forward to your visit, Secretary Austin.”

The announcement on Austin’s visit came a day after the US admiral heading the Indo-Pacific Command told the US Senate Armed Services Committee that China is yet to withdraw from several positions seized initially by the People’s Liberation Army during the standoff with India in eastern Ladakh starting May 2020.

In a statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee on the US Indo-Pacific Command Posture on Tuesday, Admiral Philip S Davidson, US Navy Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, said China’s “expansionary territorial ambitions are also on display along its western border, where the PLA has been engaged in a standoff with Indian forces along the Line of Actual Control” since May 2020.

He said the “standoff was predicated by clashes over construction activities near the disputed border PLA ground maneuver and support elements subsequently forward-deployed roughly 50,000 soldiers along the LAC, leading to a counter-deployment by the Indian Army”. Further, he said, the PLA has “not yet withdrawn from several forward positions it seized following the initial clash, and the consequent escalation of tensions between the PRC and India has resulted in casualties on both sides”.

“This large-scale PLA mobilization – which is particularly notable considering the elevation, terrain, and distance involved – has stoked regional concerns that the PRC will increasingly use force to achieve desired outcomes,” Admiral Davidson said.

The statement followed weeks after India and China began the disengagement process from the north and south banks of Pangong Tso, and pulled back troops, tanks and other heavy military equipment from the frontlines. The senior military commanders from both sides met on February 19 again, after the initial disengagement was completed, to discuss de-escalation in the Pangong Tso region, and disengagement from other friction areas, including Depsang Plains, Gogra Post, Hot Springs and Demchok. However, things have not moved forward since.

Regarding the relationship between India and the US, Admiral Davidson said the “current state of the US-India relations presents a historic opportunity to deepen ties and solidify what I consider the ‘defining partnership of the 21st century’”.

He said several agreements between India and the US have been signed recently, including the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement in 2018, “which has greatly enhanced information sharing and interoperability; the Industrial Security Annex, signed in December 2019, that allows for the transfer of technologies in support of defence production; the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement to share unclassified geospatial information; and the agreement on Navy-to-Navy Information Sharing in October 2020”.

He mentioned that the Indian and American navies “are now securely sharing information, and India has substantially increased its acquisition of US defense equipment” and the defence sales are “at an all-time high”.

The US, he said, “strongly supports India’s establishment of an information fusion center focusing on maritime domain awareness” that was inaugurated by India in December 2018, “which will improve maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region and Bay of Bengal”.

The US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Davidson said, “defines the security relationship with India as a strategic imperative” and the US expects “substantial progress on interoperability and information sharing, service-level and joint military-to-military cooperation and exercises like Tiger Triumph and Malabar, and an increase in quadrilateral collaboration between India, Australia, Japan, and the United States as the relationship continues to mature”.

Speaking about “adversarial challenges”, Admiral Davidson mentioned China has the “greatest strategic threat”.

“Its rapidly advancing capabilities and increasingly competitive posture underscore its drive to become a regionally dominant, globally influential power,” he said. Beijing, he said, “is growing increasingly confident” and its leaders have “demonstrated a willingness to accept friction to pursue a more expansive set of political, economic, and security interests”.

“This growing assertiveness is particularly acute concerning sovereignty disputes, as Beijing seeks to steadily and incrementally shift the regional status quo to their advantage,” he said.