Rajnath Singh holds delegation-level talks with Austin at Pentagon

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and US Secretary of Defence Lloyd J. Austin held a delegation-level talks at the Pentagon ahead of the 2+2 ministerial dialogue between the two countries.

Singh along with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar arrived in the US capital on Sunday to attend the 2+2 ministerial dialogue in Washington on Monday,the first of the Biden Administration being hosted by Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Austin.

The 2+2 dialogue would enable both sides to undertake a comprehensive review of cross-cutting issues in the India-US bilateral agenda related to foreign policy, defence and security with the objective of providing strategic guidance and vision for further consolidating the relationship, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release on Thursday.

Singh was provided an enhanced honour cordon at the Pentagon as he arrived at America's Defence Department headquarters for talks with Austin.

Following the enhanced honour cordon on the steps of the Pentagon at its historic River Side entrance, Austin and Singh walked inside the building for the talks where the two leaders discussed bilateral defence engagement, trade, Indo-Pacific and the global situation in the backdrop of the Ukrainian conflict.

Earlier, Singh met senior executives of American aerospace and defence majors Boeing and Raytheon and asked them to take advantage of policy initiatives in India to steadily march from Make in India' towards Make for the World'.