India and US defence ministers set for bilateral talks in Philippines

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth are expected to meet on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 13th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Cebu, Philippines.

The gathering, hosted in Lapu-Lapu City on 28-29 October under the Philippines’ ASEAN chairmanship, brings together defence ministers from ASEAN states and eight dialogue partners, including India and the United States.

Mr Singh, who left New Delhi on Tuesday, is due to address a session on regional and international security issues. He has described the forum as the region’s premier platform for defence consultations and reaffirmed India’s commitment to ASEAN centrality under its Act East policy.

The anticipated bilateral comes almost exactly a year after the two leaders signed a 10-year Framework for the US-India Major Defence Partnership on the margins of the previous ADMM-Plus in Kuala Lumpur. That document, signed on 31 October 2025, aims to guide cooperation across interoperability, information sharing, defence industrial collaboration, science and technology, and joint deterrence efforts. Both sides described it as marking a new phase in the partnership.

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Since then, military-to-military engagement has continued. In September, the 22nd edition of the bilateral Exercise Yudh Abhyas brought roughly 600 personnel from each army to training sites in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. The drills covered mountain and desert operations, combined live-fire exercises involving systems such as India’s Pinaka rocket launchers and US HIMARS, as well as drones and autonomous platforms.

The relationship has also advanced through co-production discussions, including plans linked to Javelin anti-tank missiles, and the continued integration of US-origin platforms such as P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, Apache and Chinook helicopters, and C-17 transporters into Indian service.