Rajnath, US Defence Secretary discuss situation in Afghanistan, combatting terrorism

Austin called Singh amid speculation over the US seeking India’s support for carrying out aerial surveillance and drone strikes in Afghanistan-Pakistan region

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his counterpart in the United States, Lloyd Austin, on Monday exchanged views on combatting terrorism in the region as well as the situation in Afghanistan.

Austin called Singh amid speculation over the US seeking India’s support for carrying out aerial surveillance and drone strikes on terrorists in Afghanistan-Pakistan region. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US President Joe Biden set to hold a bilateral meeting in Washington DC on Friday, they also discussed defence cooperation and looked forward to working closely, according to an official press release issued in New Delhi.

They discussed the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban last month returned to power after occupying many provinces and finally the national capital through a military campaign across the country, taking advantage of the withdrawal of troops by the US and its NATO allies.

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Austin and Singh discussed combatting terrorism in the region just about a week after a member of the House of Representatives – the lower house of the American Congress – suggested that the Biden Administration should ask New Delhi to allow the US to launch “Over-the-Horizon” strikes from bases in India to eliminate terrorists in and around Afghanistan.

Responding to Representative Mark Green’s suggestion during a congressional hearing, Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said that the US was “deeply engaged” with India, but he would not like to discuss the details publicly.

Green’s suggestion and Blinken’s response triggered speculation over the US seeking to use bases in India to launch drone strikes in the region as it could not longer carry out such strikes from the bases in Afghanistan.

The US recently admitted that a drone strike it had carried out in the capital of Afghanistan on August 29 to neutralise an Islamic State suicide bomber had gone wrong and mistakenly killed 10 civilians, including seven children. The drone strike had been carried out just two days before the last contingent of the US troops had left Afghanistan, bringing to an end its 20-year-long military mission which had been launched in response to the 9/11 attacks in America in 2001.

During the phone call on Monday, Austin and Singh appreciated the mutual cooperation in the recent evacuation operations in Afghanistan and agreed to remain in regular contact in view of the evolving situation, the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi stated.

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