Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat lands in Washington, to meet US Army top brass

Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, has arrived in Washington D.C. for a visit – just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned from a tour to the United States.

Gen. Rawat visited Joint Base Lewis-McChord – home to the I Corps of the US Army and the 62nd Airlift Wing of the US Air Force – in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. He discussed issues of bilateral defence cooperation with Major General Xavier T. Brunson, the Commanding General of the I Corps of the US Army, according to a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Army.

The I Corps is a formation of the United States Army Pacific (USARPAC) – the army component unit of the United States Indo-Pacific Command.

His visit comes just days after the Prime Minister had bilateral meetings with US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington D.C.

Modi and Biden reviewed the bilateral defence cooperation during the meeting.

The Prime Minister also last week joined the US President, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japan’s outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for the first in-person summit of the Quad, a coalition forged by the four nations to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Gen Rawat is likely to meet the top brass of the US Army during his stay in Washington D.C. His visit will also set the stage for Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s stateside visit for a meeting with his counterpart Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, later this year. Singh and Austin will join External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his counterpart American Secretary of State Antony Blinken for the India-US 2+2 dialogue in Washington D.C.

The Chief of Defence Staff had visited Russia last week.

Check out latest DH videos here