Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is heading to New Delhi after Seoul and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will fly to Anchorage, Alaska for a meeting with Chinese officials.
Most of the action in US foreign relations is taking place in Asia this week and almost all of Asia is concentrated. US Secretary of State and Defense, Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, travel to Tokyo and Seoul. Mr. Austin is heading to New Delhi after Seoul and Mr. Blinken will fly to Anchorage, Alaska, where he and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan from their Chinese counterparts Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi for the first Sino-US bilateral of the Biden administration Will meet .
In India, Mr. Austin is scheduled to meet Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and other “senior national security officers” (presumably National Security Advisor Ajit Doval topped this list). While announcing the visit, the Pentagon said they would discuss deepening the Major Defense Partnership. They will also discuss Indo-Pacific and are expected to discuss the operation of the ‘Basic Agreements’ of US defense cooperation, the last of which was signed in October (the original Exchange and Cooperation Agreement).
“I have no doubt that the discussion will be clear behind closed doors. However, what remains to be seen is whether the Secretary talks openly about the US in New Delhi or makes a joint effort to counter Chinese coercion in the Indo-Pacific, or reverts to more opaque references to shared threats , Said Joshua White, a professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS and former director of South Asia at the Obama National Security Council.
There have also been some sales in the works, including General Atomics’ $ 3 billion deal for 30 armed drones, as well as the final stages of approval by the Ministry of Defense.
The Defense Secretary coming to New Delhi can help change the perception about his resume even during his foreign tour.
“A trip to New Delhi on its maiden voyage abroad may also be designed to address concerns that the Secretary, a former commander of the US Central Command with deep experience in the Middle East, did not end Indo-Pacific because of it Were going to give, ”Mr. White said.
We can also expect discussions around Afghanistan. The US is trying to facilitate a peace deal through an inter-Afghan dialogue, as it assesses the deadline for a military withdrawal on May 1 that Mr. Trump made under an agreement with the Taliban.
US President Joe Biden said that the withdrawal of US troops from the deadline “may happen” but is “difficult” in an ABC interview aired on Wednesday. The President also said that if the deadline is extended, it will not be brought back for a very long time.
“The fact that the former president did the work was not a very solid negotiated deal”. “And so we are also consulting with our partners [Afghan] The government and that decision are still in process. “
While India has not been invited to Thursday’s talks in Moscow on an inter-Afghan agreement, it is part of a proposed US plan for a UN conference on a compromise. Indian concerns about the withdrawal of Afghanistan and the US are likely to figure in Mr. Austin’s discussions in New Delhi.
A possible Afghanistan trip?
Nor would it be unprecedented for the Secretary of Defense to make an unannounced visit to Afghanistan. Jim Mattis, former Secretary of Defense, fell on allied troops in the US and Afghanistan in September 2018 when the Trump administration was trying to advance a peace deal in the country. However, the Pentagon had nothing to declare on Afghanistan. Hindu Asked if Mr. Austin would visit the country.
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