US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard will be the first cabinet official to visit India following the commitment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump to enhance intelligence sharing.

Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), began her trip with a stop at the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command (PACOM) on Tuesday. She will meet with Indian leaders and officials to discuss strengthening intelligence cooperation.

Next week, Gabbard will attend the Raisina Dialogue, a major geopolitical security conference in New Delhi, to which PM Modi invited her during their meeting in Washington last month.

Before leaving Washington, Gabbard stated on social media platform X that her trip’s goal is to strengthen relationships and establish open lines of communication to achieve President Trump’s objectives of peace, freedom, and prosperity.

Her trip will also include stops in Japan, Thailand, and France.

During PM Modi’s visit to Washington last month, his first official meeting was with Gabbard. He posted on X:
“Discussed various aspects of the India-USA friendship, of which she’s always been a strong votary.”

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal added that their discussions focused on enhancing intelligence cooperation in the areas of counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and emerging threats.

In their joint statement, PM Modi and President Trump committed to expanding cooperation to support and sustain the overseas deployments of the US and Indian militaries in the Indo-Pacific through enhanced logistics and intelligence sharing.

While serving in Congress, Gabbard strongly supported closer ties between India and the US.

As DNI, Gabbard leads the US Intelligence Community, which includes intelligence agencies and the intelligence functions of various government departments and military services. She also manages the National Intelligence Program.

Gabbard is a Hindu by religion, though she is of Samoan and Irish descent.

She served in the Army Reserves as a lieutenant colonel and is a decorated combat veteran who was deployed to Iraq.

Gabbard was elected to Congress as a member of the Democratic Party and ran unsuccessfully for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020. She later joined the Republican Party and endorsed Trump last year.