Australian Defence Minister Kevin Andrews is in India this week, and hold a series of meeting with top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Australian defence minister arrived in India Monday evening.
He is slated to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday but it is not fixed yet and the meeting could be postponed to Wednesday, when Andrews will lay a wreath at Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate and be accorded a guard of honour at the defence ministry.
On Wednesday, he is also slated to meet his counterpart Manohar Parrikar, as well as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
The minister will leave India on Thursday.
This is the first meeting between defence ministers of India and Australia following the release of the Framework for Security Cooperation by Prime Ministers Modi and Tony Abbottduring the former's Australia visit in November 2014, and is being viewed as an important dialogue and an opportunity to set the direction of bilateral defence engagement in line with the expectations of the framework.
It also comes ahead of AUSINDEX, the first ever bilateral maritime exercise of Indian and Australian navies.
