Rajnath-Austin meet looks to firm up Indo-Pacific strategy

Ajay Banerjee

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New Delhi, November 9

When Defence Minister Rajnath Singh meets his US counterpart Llyod Austin tomorrow at a bilateral meeting, he would look to assess how committed Washington remains in the Indo-Pacific, while Austin is likely to ask India on how much of help it can offer in containing an aggressive China in the region.

India free to decide Middle East stand: WH

• India, which remains a strategic partner for the US, is free to decide on its stance on any particular crisis or contingency around the world, including in the Middle East, the White House has said
• The remarks by John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, came in response to a question if the US sees any role for India in resolving the Middle East crisis

The US is heavily committed to helping Ukraine fight Russia and broker peace between Israel and Hamas, but has made it clear that Indo-Pacific focus shall remain. It is this assurance that Rajnath and his team will look to assess. The US is asking India to share additional burden of patrolling the Indo-Pacific.

From New Delhi’s perspective, the Indian Navy has permanently deployed its warships at five maritime sea routes in the Indian Ocean. These are the Gulf of Aden and the Straits of Hormuz to the west. To the east it has positioned patrols at Straits of Malacca, Straits of Sunda and the Straits of Lombok in Indonesia.

The Navy has been sailing through the South China Sea and its maritime surveillance planes, the Boeing P8I, fly in coordinated missions with the US and Australia.

Austin’s office put out a post on X saying the “visit to the Indo-Pacific comes as the US along with our allies and partners, continue to make historic progress toward a shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific”. Today Austin landed at Delhi and inspected a guard of honour at the Military facility at the airport. Before that, Austin and Rajnath hugged each other as the visitor alighted from his special plane. This evening Austin’s office out another post on X saying terming this as “a time of great momentum in the US-India partnership”.

Yesterday, the US Department of Defence, in a note, addressed some concerns, saying “Each of the Secretary’s stops — in India, South Korea and Indonesia — will underscore the depth of the longstanding US commitment to strengthening the Indo-Pacific’s dynamic security architecture”.

Separately, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh in a media interaction in Washington said “…while there are other events taking place in the world, we can still engage in the Indo-Pacific”.

US seeks to strengthen its alliances across Asia to deter what it sees as an increasingly assertive China.