US companies have sold India more than $21bn of weapons since 2007 and Washington has been urging the Indian government to sign agreements allowing for sharing of sensitive information and encrypted communications for better use of the high-end military equipment.

Esper also welcomed Australia’s participation in next month’s naval exercises involving India, US and Japan off the Bay of Bengal.

“Our focus now must be on institutionalising and regularising our cooperation to meet the challenges of the day and uphold the principles of a free and open Indo-Pacific well into the future,” Esper said.

China has previously opposed such multilateral war games, seeing them as aimed against it. India had also long resisted expanding them for fear this would rile Beijing up.

But the border tension with China this summer, which erupted in a clash killing 20 Indian soldiers, has hardened the public mood against Beijing and is driving closer ties with the US, analysts say.

“Our talks today were fruitful, aimed at further deepening defence cooperation in a wide range of areas,” Singh said in a tweet.

Pompeo on Monday separately met Jaishankar, who tweeted that relations between the emerging allies have “grown substantially in every domain”.

In a statement, the US State Department lauded “the strong partnership between the United States and India”, declaring it to be “critical to the security and prosperity of both countries, the Indo-Pacific region, and the world”.

After India, Pompeo will travel to Sri Lanka and Maldives, two Indian Ocean countries where China has financed and built various infrastructure, which has alarmed India and the US.

US President Donald Trump has made being tough on China a key part of his campaign to secure a second term in next week’s presidential election.