India’s leadership role in Indo-Pacific praised by Pentagon chief

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin praised India’s growing ties with “like-minded partners” as he held talks in New Delhi Saturday dominated by shared alarm about China, AFP reported.

India is a vital US partner in the Asia-Pacific region as Washington seeks to take on Beijing, and Austin’s two-day trip is New Delhi’s first face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden’s administration, AFP reported.

It follows hot on the heels of frosty US-China talks in Alaska and a visit by Austin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Japan and South Korea, two other important partners irked by China.

Last week saw the first ever summit of the leaders of the Quad, a four-way alliance of the US, Japan, Australia and India seen as a bulwark against China.

In early April the four countries’ navies — plus that of France — are due to hold joint exercises in the Bay of Bengal.

Austin told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he “commended India’s leadership role in the Indo-Pacific and growing engagement with like-minded partners across the region to promote shared goals,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

Also not mentioning China directly, Modi tweeted that “India and US are committed to our strategic partnership that is a force for global good.”

Washington is keen for its partners in the region to deepen cooperation among themselves into “a network of overlapping relationships” not necessarily involving the US, a senior US official said.

To that end, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and Australian counterpart Marise Payne will hold separate meetings with their French and Indonesian opposite numbers Jean-Yves Le Drian and Retno Marsudi in New Delhi in mid-April, the Hindustan Times reported.

According to AFP, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said after meeting Austin that he had agreed to “pursue enhanced cooperation with the US Indo-Pacific Command, Central Command and Africa Command.”

He said that New Delhi wanted “to make the Indian-US relationship one of the defining partnerships of (the) 21st century.”

Austin called India a “central pillar of our approach to the region”, hailing the two nations’ “shared values and converging strategic interests.