Department of Defense Spokesperson Lt. Col. Martin Meiners provided the following statement:
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Dr. Ely Ratner will depart for a trip to India and Vietnam this week to deepen the United States' cooperation with each of these key Indo-Pacific partners.
In New Delhi, Assistant Secretary Ratner will co-chair the Sixth U.S.-India 2+2 Intersessional Dialogue as well as the Maritime Security Dialogue alongside Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu. He will also be joined on the defense side by Mr. Terry Emmert, Principal Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Mission Capabilities, Research & Engineering; Mr. Michael Vaccaro, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, Acquisition & Sustainment; Rear Admiral Tom Moninger of the Office of Naval Operations; and representatives from the United States Indo-Pacific Command.
Through these dialogues, the United States and India will advance an ambitious set of initiatives across our defense partnership ahead of the 2+2 Ministerial next year, including in support of information-sharing, logistics, technology, and high-end Navy cooperation.
From there, Assistant Secretary Ratner will travel to Hanoi to lead the U.S.-Vietnam Defense Policy Dialogue as the United States takes important steps toward expanding the breadth and depth of our comprehensive partnership with Vietnam.
Assistant Secretary Ratner's trip reaffirms the Department's deep commitment to working in lockstep with like-minded partners to advance our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.
