Singapore – The United States is looking forward to cementing its relationship with India during the upcoming visit of US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to New Delhi in the coming week, according to Panetta’s remarks, made available by the Pentagon.
Panetta addressed the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, where he stressed the vital role of India (along with regional countries like Vietnam), in addition to the role of New Zealand and Australia in supporting peace building in the Asia Pacific.
The last couple days of Secretary Panetta’s trip will be spent in New Delhi. Addressing the audience, Panetta said his visit to India was, “to affirm our interest in building a strong security relationship with a country I believe will play a decisive role in shaping the security and prosperity of the 21st century.”
“Key to this approach is our effort to modernize and strengthen our alliances and partnerships in this region,” said Panetta, citing India as one of the “key partners.”
Secretary Panetta went to great lengths to outline the planned new weapons and carriers the US is scheduling for the region to increase the US Navy presence by 2020. The goal, said the secretary, will be to “reposture its forces from today’s roughly 50/50 percent split between the Pacific and the Atlantic to about a 60/40 split between those oceans.”
Already in the region are six aircraft carriers, a majority of US cruisers, destroyers, Littoral Combat Ships, and submarines, Panetta revealed. He noted that the US was “investing specifically in those kinds of capabilities — such as an advanced fifth-generation fighter, an enhanced Virginia-class submarine, new electronic warfare and communications capabilities, and improved precision weapons.”
Earlier at a Pentagon briefing, senior defense officials told journalists, “The secretary has been eager to visit India since assuming his post last summer,” adding, “US-India defense ties are extremely important in a whole host of ways. Strategically, we see India as a partner with whom we have a lot of common interests and a lot of areas where we can work well together.”
Outlining a broad agenda, officials said the secretary will discuss implications of the strategic guidance for US-India military-to-military relations, the outcome of the NATO summit, long-term trends in South Asia and the region, and the burgeoning trade in defense supplies.
Describing the relationship with India as “broad, strategic and continual,” the official said, “With India, we are getting to a place where this type of interaction is just part of the norm of the relationship, where we engage on a whole range of issues — strategic issues, cooperative issues and a whole range of cooperative issues.”
In addition to meeting his Indian counterpart, A.K. Antony, and other senior Indian officials, Secretary Panetta will be delivering a major policy speech in New Delhi, the Pentagon official said.
Pressed to give further details of the program and agenda, the official declined, saying he would “want the trip to unfold.”
This is Panetta’s second trip to the region since taking office and comes on the heels of a recent trip to India by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Unlike Clinton, who visited Kolkata and New Delhi, Panetta will stay in the Indian capital both days of his visit.
“The core of what we’re trying to do in this swing through Asia is give a comprehensive account to everyone in the region about what the rebalance to the Asia-Pacific [region] will mean in practice,” the senior defense official said. (IATNS)