5th June, 2012, New Delhi: Leon Panetta, the United States Defense Secretary will arrive in India for a two-day visit. The delegation level dialogue between Mr Panetta and AK Antony, the Union Defense Minister is scheduled to take place on 6th June. In is anticipated that China will feature largely in their talks.
In recent years, both India and the United States have increased military hardware cooperation, but there are no chance of signing any kind of defense deal during this visit. India’s concerns regarding the situations coming out of the projected withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan in the year 2014 as well as the current security setting are also expected to be discussed by these two nations.
India’s concerns regarding Pakistan purpose in abetting or aiding terror groups in the region as well as supply of ammunition and arms by the United States to Pakistan are also anticipated to highly feature in the meeting.
According to sources, United States’ plan to shift a huge number of their naval fleet, with six aircraft carriers by 2020 to the Pacific as a part of their focus on Asia will also be discussed.
