US tells India AUKUS won’t impact Quad

The US has told India that the new trilateral AUKUS military pact with Australia and the UK will not detract from either Quad or bilateral cooperations, a TOI report has said.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd J Austin told Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in a telephone conversation on Monday that the US would continue its cooperation with India at various fora.

There have been concerns that the AUKUS might weaken strateic cooperation under the Quad -- of which India is a part -- and reduce the quadrilateral grouping to dealing with just climate change, Covid vaccines and the like.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to travel to Washington this week to attend the first in-person summit of the Quad leaders of the US, India, Australia and Japan.

During the conversation, Rajnath Singh also conveyed his concern over the huge amounts of high-end US weapons left behind in Afghanistan.

The defence ministry said in a statement, “Both the leaders discussed bilateral and regional matters including developments in Afghanistan. They discussed defence cooperation and looked forward to working closely.”