US, India join forces to curtail China

– The United States and India will seek to finalise a number of defence agreements during high-level talks this week that aim to draw their two militaries closer and counter-balance China’s influence in the region.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will hold talks with India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the so-called

Washington

two-plus-two discussions.

Already cancelled twice this year, it is the highest level of dialogue between the two countries and was agreed upon by US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.

Officials and experts believe that the meeting is not only symbolically important, but will give the world’s two largest democracies a chance to make concrete progress while ironing out significant differences, including over India’s ties with Russia and Iran. The talks will be held tomorrow.

Randall Schriver, the Pentagon’s top Asia official, predicted last week the discussions would produce “a set of actual concrete outcomes”. The US and India have increased defence ties over the past decade, in part because of mutual concerns over an increasingly assertive China. – Reuters