U.S. NSA Waltz puts off India visit amid ‘Signalgate’ controversy

U.S. NSA Michael Waltz postpones India visit amid security breach controversy, potential rescheduling in the coming months.

Amidst turmoil in Washington over communication security breaches by the National Security Council, including the National Security Advisor’s office itself, U.S. National Security Advisor (NSA) Michael Waltz has put off his visit to India slated for next week, a number of sources confirmed to The Hindu. Mr. Waltz was due to visit New Delhi from April 21 to 23, for official meetings and addressing the annual U.S.-India Forum sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs and organized by the Ananta Centre.

The U.S. NSA’s office conveyed to the MEA and to NSA Ajit Doval’s office a few days ago that he would postpone his visit to Delhi for now, the sources said. It was expected that Mr. Waltz would hold a number of different meetings and also call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the visit.

Apart from meeting NSA Doval and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Mr. Waltz was expected to attend a preliminary meeting of the Transforming Relations Utilising Strategic Technologies (TRUST) mechanism, the successor to the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) mechanism that the government had launched with the Biden administration in 2023. Mr. Waltz was also due to be a speaker at the U.S.-India Forum, a conference held every year behind closed doors.

His predecessor in the Biden Administration, Jake Sullivan, had visited Delhi in January this year for a farewell visit.

Officials said that since the Waltz visit had not been formally announced, it would be difficult to comment on the reasons for the cancellation. Speculation has been rife in US newspapers about Mr. Waltz’s position being tenuous after the “Signalgate” controversy, wherein he accepted the blame for inadvertently adding a senior journalist to a chat on messaging platform Signal. In the chat, details of upcoming bombing operations on Houthis in Yemen, along with Vice-President J.D. Vance, Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard and other senior members of U.S. President Trump’s cabinet were discussed in real time.

Reports added that Mr. Waltz had maintained several other such insecure Signal chats for other foreign policy issues involving Ukraine, China and Gaza, and that the National Security Advisor used his personal Gmail accounts for sensitive communication. While the White House has stood by Mr. Waltz, the reports have considerably embarrassed the administration and could be a reason for Mr. Waltz’s decision to put off the India visit.

According to sources, he may now reschedule his visit in the next few months, and could time it along with the next edition of Indus-X, a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Defense and the Indian Ministry of Defence, that brings businesses involved in defence innovation and strategic technologies together.