US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III travels to the Indo-Pacific region. It is Austin’s ninth trip to the region. On his trip, the Secretary of Defense will make stops in India, South Korea and Indonesia. In India, Austin will meet his counterpart Rajnath Singh.
The aim of the meeting is to strengthen defense technology cooperation between the two nations. India and the USA are also aiming to increase the operability of their armed forces. To this end, the US government has created the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X). Just this summer, the USA and India published their roadmap for future strategic cooperation. This includes cooperation in the areas of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, undersea reconnaissance, air combat and support, munitions systems and mobility. In addition, the defense ministers will participate in a meeting with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi. Afterwards, Austin and Blinken will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During his stay in South Korea, Austin will meet with South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik.The two leaders will meet as part of the 55th Annual Security Consultative Meeting and the inaugural session of the UN Command of Defense Ministers of Member States. In Indonesia, Austin will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Ministerial Meeting (ADMM-Plus). In addition to the ten ASEAN member states and the USA, China, Russia, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand are also represented.
The future of security policy in the Indo-Pacific region will be discussed in detail at the upcoming Berlin Security Congress. The High-Level Forum: “The Indo-Pacific challenge: How does it affect Europe?” will feature Petra Sigmund, Director General of the Federal Foreign Office, Germany, Joost Flamand, Director of Security Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands, H.E. Hidenao Yanagi, Ambassador of Japan, H.E. Kim Hong-kyun, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea and Major General Matt Hall, Australian Military Representative to NATO and the EU. Dr. Roy Chun Lee, Deputy Foreign Minister, Taiwan, will also speak.
