He mentioned that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is scheduled to meet Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on the Pentagon on Monday. This comes on the heels of a prolonged telephonic dialog that Austin had with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh over the cellphone lately.
“In the wake of a number of these engagements it has been really clear that the US and India today are more closely aligned in our relationship than we have ever been before in our history. What we see is converging strategic interests and a shared vision for the region, in particular, we’ve made a number of great strides in the past few years, building on our four foundational agreements,” he asserted.
The US, India and a number of other different world powers have been speaking concerning the want to guarantee a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific within the backdrop of China’s rising navy manoeuvring within the area.
China claims almost all the disputed South China Sea, although Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all declare elements of it. Beijing has constructed synthetic islands and navy installations within the South China Sea.
The United States, Ratner mentioned, is supporting India’s navy modernisation.
“This vision informs our top priorities for the Defense Partnership. The first priority is the department’s commitment to bolstering India’s military capability and its deterrent capability and supporting its rise as a defence industrial power,” he mentioned.
In sensible phrases, that signifies that the US is going to be working carefully with India, on co-producing and co-developing capabilities that can help India’s personal defence modernisation targets in its potential to export to its companions throughout the area, together with in South and Southeast Asia at inexpensive worth factors. This is one thing that the officers of the 2 international locations have talked about throughout their current conferences, he mentioned.
The Department of Defence is having a exhausting have a look at close to and medium-term alternatives to co-produce main capabilities with India, he mentioned, including that they’re having good conversations with the Indian authorities on the highest ranges about their respective priorities in that regard.
“We hope to have more to announce on this front before too long,” Ratner mentioned. Secondly, the US and India are pursuing deepening their operational cooperation and coordination with an eye fixed towards countering and out-matching their opponents throughout vital warfighting domains.
“In the maritime domain and in our Navy-to-Navy ties, we are achieving levels of cooperation that were previously unimaginable spanning information, sharing new training and exercises, technical exchanges and cooperation on underwater domain awareness, which we know is a priority for the Indian government,” he mentioned.
On the economic cooperation entrance, the US Navy is extra alternatives for mid-voyage repairs at Indian Navy Indian shipyards.
“Many of you who follow these issues closely would have taken note of the historic repair of the Charles Drew in Chennai last month, which we thought was really groundbreaking in terms of the development of our partnership and some of our coordination operationally, particularly as we work to extend our collective operational reach both of the United States militaries but also of the Indian military,” he advised the individuals of the spherical desk.
India and the US are additionally more and more targeted on working extra carefully collectively and in additional joint methods throughout what we have heard referred to as new defence domains, corresponding to our on-line world, and synthetic intelligence in different rising expertise areas.
The two international locations are working towards the launch of a new dialogue later this yr that can assist them increase cooperation throughout every of those key domains by bringing collectively a singular dialogue targeted on rising applied sciences.
“As we move toward a more advanced phase in our partnership, we’re thinking more expansively about how we work together in the broader regional architecture, including in coalition settings with partners both within and beyond the region,” he mentioned.
He acknowledged that the 2 international locations have completely different approaches to points like Russia and Pakistan the place they’ve completely different histories.
“We have to work together to manage through near-term headwinds, particularly as they relate to areas including Russia and Pakistan, where we have different histories, different strategic environments, and we have to work together to manage through those differences,” he mentioned.
Ratner mentioned the 2 international locations have a monitor report of working via powerful points collectively via sustained dialogue and deep dedication to the partnership on each side. And on the finish of the day, this partnership is about way more than any particular person concern.
“It’s about that shared vision that we have for the Indo-Pacific and working together to ensure that the future comes to fruition,” he mentioned.
