A day before he meets US President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday held one of his first meetings of the visit with US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates as both sides looked to discuss ways to improve defence cooperation besides exchanging views on China and US involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Singh is said to have conveyed that India was looking forward to greater collaboration between India and the US after New Delhi’s decision to allow its private players in the defence sector to have up to 26 per cent foreign investment.

In a visit that is increasingly being looked from the prism of Obama’s recently concluded trip to China, New Delhi will hope to get an understanding from the US side on its “new approach” towards Beijing. It’s learnt that the American military establishment has been making discomforting noises about China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region that sits oddly with accommodative gestures from White House.

Gates has been pushing for stronger defence cooperation with India. An important part of Gates’s brief was to push for more US military sales to India, particularly on multi-role combat aircraft deal, but India was looking to get a sense from him on how Pentagon views China’s rise and its military assertiveness.

According to information with India, the Indian Ocean came up for specific mention from China as an area of concern during Obama’s visit along with Taiwan and Tibet. Sources said this had implications for New Delhi because India along with the US and countries like Japan and Australia had been working out defence agreements to ensure dominance over Indian Ocean.

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