Accompanied by a high-level delegation, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will arrive in Visakhapatnam today on a three-day visit to India.
This would be Carter's first visit to India as Defense Secretary.
He had earlier visited India in September 2013 and July 2012 as Deputy Defense Secretary.
As Deputy Secretary, Carter was the main architect of the India-US Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) and advocated support for treating India at the same level as their closest partner in terms of extent and level of technology transfer, co-development, co-production and collaborative ventures, expedited approval process for licenses, and so forth.
After visiting the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, he will reach New Delhi this evening.
Carter would be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar tomorrow.
Prior to his India visit, Carter had attended the 'Shangri La Dialogue-2015' on Asian Security organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Singapore from May 29-31.