India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday held a telephonic conversation with his American counterpart Pete Hegseth, in which the two discussed the state of the existing India-US defence partnership, and expanding industry collaboration.
The two discussed ongoing and upcoming initiatives to enhance this cooperation as well, in what is their third conversation since Hegseth's appointment in January—and their first since India's Operation Sindoor—which was a series of precision strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan.
New Delhi had called it a response to the devastating Pahalgam attack of April 22, for which they blamed Islamabad.
Thanking the US for its “unwavering support ... in its (India's) fight against terrorism”, he explained that he looked forward to accepting Hegseth's invitation for an in-person bilateral meeting (in the US) to take the defence partnership forward.
Glad to speak with the US @SecDef Mr. @PeteHegseth today. Excellent discussion to review the ongoing and new initiatives to further deepen India-US defence partnership and strengthen cooperation in capacity building.
— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) July 1, 2025
Conveyed my deep appreciation for the unwavering support…
Operation Sindoor inevitably came up during the conversation. In that regard, Singh reiterated what the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had told the world at the time, that “India’s actions during Operation Sindoor were measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and focused on disabling terrorist infrastructure.”
He also explained the seriousness of Pakistan's “long track record of cross-border terrorism”.
“It has become a safe haven for internationally banned terrorists who enjoy immunity there,” he added, mentioning that this was a known fact. Notably, India had even sent seven all-party delegations in May specifically for this purpose: to notify the world of India's firm stance against terrorism, by briefing them about Operation Sindoor.
Singh further underlined that India reserved the right to respond and defend itself against terrorism, clarifying that this also meant it had the right to pre-empt (and deter) any further cross-border attacks, as per a DD News report.
“They agreed to further build upon the momentum of this critical & mutually beneficial partnership across all its pillars such as interoperability, integration of defence industrial supply chains, logistics sharing, increased joint military exercises and cooperation with other like-minded partners,” a PIB press release said.
