New Delhi: With military ties increasingly driving the bilateral relationship, US secretary of defence Lloyd J. Austin became the first member of the Biden administration to visit India, kicking off his three-day tour Friday with a formal call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which he expressed Washington’s commitment to strengthening defence cooperation and promoting a “free and open” regional order in the Indo-Pacific.
Austin, a former head of the US military’s Central Command, arrived in Delhi on the last leg of his first overseas trip as Pentagon chief. His previous destinations were Japan and China, where he was joined by US secretary of state Anthony Blinken.
Thrilled to be here in India. The breadth of cooperation between our two nations reflects the significance of our major defense partnership, as we work together to address the most pressing challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region. pic.twitter.com/0wA88ERrDn
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) March 19, 2021
His visit also comes in the wake of the first virtual summit last week of the Quad – India, the United States, Japan and Australia – in which the grouping discussed a common approach to China in the Indo-Pacific region.
After arriving, Austin called on Modi and met separately with national security advisor Ajit Doval. He is scheduled to hold formal discussions with his counterpart, defence minister Rajnath Singh, on Saturday.
According to a read-out from the US defence department spokesperson, the two sides “exchanged perspectives on shared challenges confronting the region and committed to further strengthen their broad ranging and robust defence cooperation”. They also reaffirmed their commitment to “promote a free and open regional order”.
Austin also commended “India’s leadership role in the Indo-Pacific and growing engagement with like-minded partners across the region to promote shared goals”.
Beyond these boilerplate phrases, the Austin visit is likely to see the US side press India on buying more American military equipment, especially fighter aircraft, and less weaponry from Russia, especially the Almaz-Antel S-400 Triumf air defence system on which India will spend $5.5 billion. The S-400 contract comes with the risk of India being penalised under the US’s Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) – an extra-territorial measure of dubious legality in international law.
While Indian imports of other Russian hardware has not evoked calls in Washington for CAATSA to be invoked, the defence writer Rahul Bedi noted in The Wire last week that the “the threat of CAATSA emanates principally from Washington’s ‘pique’ over the IAF opting for the S-400 instead of rival systems like Lockheed Martin’s Patriot Advanced Capability PAC-3 or the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system.
Senator Robert Menendez, head of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote to Austin ahead of his Delhi visit urging the secretary of defence to remind the Indian side of the CAATSA threat. He also asked Austin to raise with his Indian interlocutors concerns in the US about the “deteriorating situation of democracy” in India.
Soon after meeting the US defence secretary, Modi tweeted: “Pleasure to meet U.S. @SecDef Lloyd Austin today. Conveyed my best wishes to @POTUS @JoeBiden. India and US are committed to our strategic partnership that is a force for global good.
The Indian ministry of defence’s press note stated that Austin expressed Washington’s “strong desire to further enhance the strategic partnership for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond”. He also “reiterated [the] US government’s continued commitment towards strengthening bilateral defence relations between the two countries”.
Modi told the US defence secretary that relations between the two sides were “rooted in shared values of democracy, pluralism and commitment to rules-based order”. He also apparently underlined the importance of bilateral defence cooperation in the overall strategic India-US partnership. “He requested Secretary Austin to convey his best wishes to President Biden,” said the MoD press communique.