U.S. defence secretary Chuck Hagel is in Delhi for his three-day visit on August 7. Hagel is scheduled to hold talks with his counterpart Arun Jaitley and is also expected to meet national security advisor Ajit K Doval and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. He is also expected to meet Narendra Modi during his visit.
A top Pentagon official said that the U.S. is looking forward to “nurturing” ties with India after the formation of the new government. India and the U.S. are expected to discuss military deals worth over Rs 20,000 crore according to media reports. Hagel is also expected to take defence cooperation beyond military hardware sales and transfer of technology under the Defence Technology Initiative (DTI) to joint manufacturing of weapon systems in India under the increased 49% FDI route permissible under the new budget.
The two sides are also expected to hold discussions on further expanding military-to-military exercises, like the recently concluded naval Malabar exercise, between the two sides.
Other areas of converging interests of India and the U.S. in the Asia Pacific, their common interests in Afghanistan will also be on the discussion table.