US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin to arrive today, hold talks with Rajnath

The visit comes a month ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official state visit to the White House.

Defence officials told The Indian Express that bringing in more US ships to India for overhaul, maintenance and repair and overall capacity building and overall regional security are some issues that will also feature in the bilateral talks.

An official said that discussions on the joint manufacturing of jet engines — which are at an advanced stage — are on the agenda among other critical technologies and the overall regional security, particularly the Indo-Pacific region amid concerns of increasing Chinese activities.

Both the countries have been in an advanced stage of talks to ink a partnership between state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) and American firm General Electric (GE) for joint manufacturing of indigenous jet engines of fighter aircraft.

The proposed deal between the two countries is likely to be announced during PM Modi’s official state visit to the US next month.

Officials said that in the talks, a proposal to increase the number of US ship docking for maintenance, repair and overhaul at Indian facilities is also discussed.

In August last year, for the first time a US cargo ship USNS Charles Drew docked in India for 11 days at a L&T facility in Chennai.

In March 2023, USNS Matthew Perry, a dry cargo ship of the US Navy docked in the same facility for maintenance and repair work.

Meanwhile, German Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius, who will be on a four-day visit to India next week, will also meet Singh for bilateral talks on Tuesday.

As per the defence ministry, he will arrive from Indonesia and aside from his meeting with the defence minister, he is likely to meet a few defence start-ups during an event organised by Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) in New Delhi.

Later in the week, he will travel to Mumbai where he is likely to visit Headquarters, Western Naval Command and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited.

The focus of the bilateral talks with both countries will be on enhancing defence cooperation with India.