US Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh has termed the India-US defence partnership as critical for the United States and also beneficial to India. During a meeting of Defence Writers Group,Welsh said that there is an opportunity to talk to the Indian Air Force to continue to develop a partnership that overtime could be very strong.

He said that Pacific Air Forces and the US Pacific Command are very interested in building that partnership and pay a lot of attention to it.
Early this year, Welsh had hosted his Indian counterpart, Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne and was very appreciative of him. US Air Force Chief plans to visit India, but no date has been decided yet.