Tell India Russia S-400 Deal Sanctionable, US Senator To Defense Secretary

Lloyd Austin is making the first visit by a top member of the Biden administration to Delhi, as part of efforts to forge an alliance of countries seeking to push back against China's assertiveness in the region.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was urged by a senior senator to convey Washington's opposition to India's proposed purchase of Russian air defence systems as he headed to New Delhi on Friday for talks aimed at deepening security ties. Mr Austin is making the first visit by a top member of the Biden administration to Delhi, as part of efforts to forge an alliance of countries seeking to push back against China's assertiveness in the region. The leaders of the United States, India, Australia and Japan - countries together known as the Quad - held a first summit last week pledging to work together for a free and open Indo-Pacific and to cooperate on maritime and cyber security in the face of challenges from China. On Thursday, the deeply strained relations between the United States and China were on rare public display when their top diplomats levelled sharp rebukes of each others' policies in the first high-level, in-person talks of the Biden administration in Alaska.