Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh held a telephonic conversation with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin on Monday. Both Ministers briefly discussed a range of bilateral, regional security and defence cooperation issues. They reviewed the recent bilateral events such as the INDUS-X Summit held in New Delhi last month and the bilateral Tri-Service exercise Tiger Triumph.

The US Secretary of Defence appreciated the important role being played by the Indian Navy in conducting anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean Region. The two Ministers discussed ways and means to implement the India-US Defence Cooperation Roadmap which was concluded last year. Other defence-industrial cooperation issues such as repair of US naval ships in Indian shipyards were also briefly discussed.