India and the United States increasingly find themselves in agreement on strategic issues, including countering China’s aggression, promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific, and addressing regional security challenges, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on November 10 in the opening remarks of his bilateral meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.
During the talks, there was a particular focus on enhancing defence industrial cooperation and getting the defence industries from both sides together to cooperatively co-develop and co-produce defence systems, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. Mr. Austin welcomed India’s decision to become a full member of the Combined Maritime Forces, a multilateral construct headquartered in Bahrain, it added.
