Rajnath Singh holds talks with US counterpart Austin in Jakarta
NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a brief conversation with his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin, in Jakarta on Thursday, focusing on the India-US strategic ties and ways to strengthen the common efforts towards a more secure world.
In the interaction that took place on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus), Singh and Austin discussed how India and the United States could contribute together to ASEAN centrality in the Indo-Pacific region, officials said.
Ten-nation regional grouping ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is a major stakeholder in the Indo-Pacific.
The ADMM-Plus is a platform comprising the 10-nation ASEAN and its eight dialogue partners -- India, China, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the US.Indonesia is hosting the meeting as the current chair of the ADMM-Plus.
The Singh-Austin conversation came less than a week after the two ministers held wide-ranging talks in New Delhi that centred around an ambitious agenda to deepen the India-US bilateral strategic ties in the face of China’s increasing military assertiveness.
Indian officials said both leaders used the opportunity in Jakarta to quickly review the “tremendous progress” achieved in the India-US defence partnership in recent years.They discussed how the two countries could contribute together to ASEAN centrality in the Indo-Pacific and to advance “peace, prosperity and security”.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN is an organisation formed by the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore in 1967 to promote economic growth, peace, security, social progress and cultural development in the Southeast Asian region.
Singh and Austin also discussed ways to expand the India-US partnership to address emerging challenges and further strengthen the common efforts towards a more secure world, the officials said.
The two leaders met in New Delhi on November 10 and resolved to advance the defence technology cooperation with joint research in emerging areas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Austin travelled to India last week to attend the fifth edition of the “2+2” ministerial dialogue with their Indian counterparts.
Rajnath on Thursday alsoheld separate talks with his counterparts from Vietnam and Indonesia with a focus on boosting overall bilateral ties including defence industrial collaboration.
The ADMM is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism in ASEAN.
The ADMM-Plus is a platform for the ASEAN member states (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and its eight Dialogue Partners (India, US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand) to strengthen security and defence cooperation.
