Sushma to meet Tillerson in New York

After hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, New Delhi is now set to add new momentum to India-US ties with two back-to-back high-level engagements with the Trump administration.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will have a bilateral meeting with her counterpart and US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week. Sushma will arrive in New York on Sunday.


Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will host the US Secretary of Defence James Mattis in New Delhi on September 25. Mattis will also call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources told DH.

The meetings are aimed at deepening and expanding the strategic partnership between India and the US. New Delhi and Washington are likely to use both the occasions to re-affirm their commitment to work together for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and thus send out a tacit message to an increasingly aggressive China.

Mattis and Nirmala are likely to discuss ways to step up bilateral defence cooperation, including the US proposal for sale of Sea Guardian Unmanned Aerial Systems to India. They will also discuss the proposed manufacturing of US F-16 multi-role combat aircraft in India.

The US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin already entered into a deal with Tata Advance System Limited for manufacturing the most advanced version of the F-16s in India, shutting down the company’s production facility at Fort Worth in Texas, sources said in New Delhi.

The visit of US Secretary of Defence to New Delhi is likely to “deepen defense and security cooperation, building on the America’s recognition of India as a Major Defense Partner”, said a source familiar with preparations for Mattis-Nirmala meeting.

Sushma and Tillerson will discuss over India-US relations, with focus on bilateral cooperation in Afghanistan and strategic synergy in Indo-Pacific region, said another source.

The Modi-Abe summit in Gandhinagar earlier this week also saw India and Japan vowing to work together to create a network of connectivity in Indo-Pacific, ostensibly to thwart China’s bid to expand its geo-strategic influence in the region through its One-Belt-One-Road initiative.