DNA Exclusive: US Defence Secretary visits New Delhi amid India's rising stature in international fora

New Delhi: The US Defense Secretary Lloyd J Austin arrived in India for a three-day visit on Friday, this is the first foreign visit since the formation of Joe Biden's government in the US. He arrived in India after his visit from Japan and South Korea and also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Friday, Zee News Editor Sudhir Chaudhary analyses the visit of the US Defence Minister its importance and the impact on the Indo-US ties.

The new US Defense Minister is on a foreign visit of three countries, he was in Japan on March 16 after that he visited South Korea on March 17. He arrived in New Delhi on Friday for a three-day tour he is scheduled to meet Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Foreign Minister SK Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Notably, US has a mutual security agreement with Japan and South Korea that incase of an attack on Japanese or South Korean soil it will considered as an attack on the US. But there is no no such agreement with India.

This is also important because India is also not part of the NATO group of 30 countries. These are countries that are committed to each other's safety and sovereignty. But in spite of all this, the US Defense Minister has visited India first.

It can also be attributed to America's changing foreign policy and there are three big reasons for this; firstly at this time, America's biggest enemy is China and India can become a big ally for the US. It can be said that US has understood that if it wants to limit the growing influence of China then India's has an important part to play. 

Secondly, India is currently the second largest arms importing country in the world and US is exploring new possibilities for itself in India's defense sector and by doing so it also wants to reduce Russia's influence in this region which is why it has also expressed resentment over the S-400 Missile System Deal between India and Russia.

And lastly, after COVID-19 crisis there has been a shift in the Center of superpower. Now, US knows that it has to seek the help a big democratic country like India to maintain its strong hold in Asia Pacific Region.