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General Henry H Shelton, chief of the United States armed forces, began his first visit to India on Thursday, holding top-level military-to-military talks with the chairman, joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Sushil Kumar.
Shelton, who is chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, also held separate meetings with the army chief, General S Padmanabhan, and the chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal Anil Tipnis.
He also met Defence Secretary Yogendra Narain in his office for 40 minutes.
The meetings assumes significance as the Indo-US defence dialogue, which is headed by the respective defence secretaries, is yet to resume after the Pokhran nuclear blasts in 1998.
The present visit of General Shelton could hasten the process of resumption of the dialogue.
The general began his day by laying a wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti. Later, he was presented an impressive tri-services guard of honour at South Block before going in for talks with the three service chiefs.
He was to meet Defence Minister Jaswant Singh on Thursday afternoon.
PTI
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