New Delhi: Defence Secretary James Mattis held discussions with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday to get deeper military ties including the potential sales of US jet fighters and supervision drones that experts say are aimed at helping it restraint in China’s influence in the region.
Ties between India and the United States have quickly extended with New Delhi buying weapons worth $15 billion over the last decade from the United States, moving away from usual supplier Russia.
At the top of the agenda is to move forward with a deal to supply 22 Sea Guardian drone aircraft to the Indian navy that the US government approved in June, the first such authorization to a non-NATO ally.
The Indian navy has required the unarmed drones to help it mount longer duration surveillance of the Indian Ocean where Chinese marine ships and submarines are making regular forays.
The United States has been critical of China’s build-up of military facilities in the South China Sea and had suggested joint patrols with the Indian navy across the region. New Delhi has turned it down, fearing a Chinese backlash.
“China looms extremely large for both countries,” said Dhruva Jaishankar, a specialist on India-US relations at Brookings India.
“The strategic underpinning of India-US defense ties is in the common concerns they have over China, over its revisionism.”
The Indian air force has also asked for 90 armed Avenger Predator drones that specialist say it could set up to conduct cross-border strikes, for instance on camps of militants that it says exist on the Pakistan side of disputed Kashmir.
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