WASHINGTON (TIP): The US and India will continue to work together to further strengthen their military-tomilitary relations as the top defense officials of the two countries have discussed a range of bilateral security issues. Top defense officials from India and the US ON Tuesday, October 28 discussed bilateral military-to-military relationship, strategic ties and global security issues, the Pentagon said. “During the dialogue, they discussed US-India common security interests, continuing to further strengthen the military-to-military relations, their commitment to the strategic partnership and future areas of security cooperation,” a defense department official told PTI.

The 13th annual Defense Policy Group (DPG) meeting held at the Pentagon was the first high level meeting between the two countries after the September visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US. The Indian delegation was led by the Defense Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur and the US side was led by its Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth. The two leaders also discussed both countries’ efforts in combating global threats, such as terrorism and the Ebola epidemic and the need to continue to cooperate on security and development in the Indo-Pacific region, the official said. “Both Wormuth and Mathur stated their commitment to continuing progress on defense cooperation and build on the positive momentum brought about by recent seniorlevel engagements,” the official said. The last defense policy group meeting was held in New Delhi. The meeting is the annual senior-level US-India bilateral defense engagement and primary mechanism for guiding the two countries strategic defense relationship.