Major defence partnership with India: Team Biden

January 20, 2021 11:34

While reiterating the threat posed by China to the US, President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin on Tuesday (local time) said during his Senate confirmation hearing that he will operationalise India's "Major Defence Partner" status and build upon the US-India existing strong defence cooperation.

"If confirmed, my overarching objective for our defence relationship with India would be to continue elevating the partnership. I would further operationalise India's "Major Defence Partner" status and continue to build upon existing strong defence cooperation to ensure the U.S. and Indian militaries can collaborate to address shared interests," Austin said in a written statement to the US Senate.

He further said, "I would also seek to deepen and broaden our defence cooperation through the Quad security dialogue and other regional multilateral engagements."

Speaking on the US force presence in the Middle East, he said, "I will review our force presence to ensure it is properly balanced to address the broad range of challenges in the Middle East - including from China and Russia - with global requirements and the health of the joint force."

While viewing both Russia and China as a threat to the US, he, however, emphasised that China is of top priority because of its "ascent and the scope and scale of its military modernisation".

On the threat being posed by China, Austin said that Beijing has "made it clear that it expects the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to be a global military actor that is able to secure China's growing overseas interests and advance other PRC objectives abroad."

"I assess that the rapid development and operational focus of the People's Republic of China (PRC) constitutes a significant and long-term security threat to the United States and to our allies and partners. This threat is an outgrowth of nearly two decades of intense efforts by China to modernise and reform the PLA and other forces into an increasingly capable joint force able to conduct the full range of military operations across every warfighting domain," he said.

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