US President Donald Trump has signed an annual defense policy bill, which emphasizes strengthening America’s partnership with India.
The bill also mentions promoting a free environment in the Indo-Pacific region and enhancing cooperation through the ‘Quadrilateral Security Dialogue’ (Quad) to deal with the challenge posed by China.
The ‘National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026’, signed on Thursday, directs to allocate funds for the fiscal year to the national security programs of the War Ministry, Energy Ministry, State Department, Home Ministry, intelligence agencies and other executive departments and agencies.
“This Act will enable the War Department to carry out my agenda of maintaining peace through force, defending the homeland against domestic and foreign threats, and strengthening the defense industrial base. It will end funding for wasteful and harsh programs that weaken the warfighting spirit of our nation’s military personnel,” Trump said in a statement.
The Act outlines ‘Parliament’s vision of defense alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region’. Under this, the Defense Minister should continue efforts that strengthen America’s defense alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region so that America can have a comparative advantage in strategic competition with China.
The bill includes “promoting the shared objective of a free Indo-Pacific region through the Quad, bilateral and multilateral dialogues, participation in military exercises, expanded defense trade, cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster response; promoting India-US partnership through greater cooperation on maritime security.”
The Quad includes India, America, Japan and Australia. This group was formed in 2017 to counter China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Act states that the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Secretary of State, will create a security framework to strengthen cooperation between the defense industrial bases of the United States and its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region.