Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel toured Europe and Asia last week to improve global partnerships amid turmoil across the Middle East and Ukraine.

In several public appearances and media briefings, Hagel discussed the importance of working closely with partners and building up their military capabilities to address mutual interests. Given current tight budgets and the specter of sequestration returning in fiscal year 2016, Hagel said it was all the more important to constantly assess where global challenges are, how to prioritize spending on U.S. forces, and how to most efficiently invest in partners’ capabilities so they can help address regional and global threats.523a25749d0ed-022713_hagel_portrait_192x240

“The more that we can help build the capacities and capabilities of our partners all over the world, that gives them more of an opportunity not just to defend themselves and their interests but focus on mutual interests,” he said at a town hall event in Stuttgart, Germany on Wednesday. Stuttgart is home to U.S. European Command.

Asked about the upcoming NATO summit, Hagel said that the summit would be one of the most important in a long time due to a new NATO secretary general transitioning in, conflict in Ukraine still raging and the war in Afghanistan drawing down.

“I think this will give us an opportunity, this summit, to look at how NATO is organized – is it organized the way it should be organized for the kinds of new challenges that are emerging?” he said of the key U.S. partner. “Like every living thing, enterprises, institutions are dynamic and they must stay relevant to the challenges. That’s a constant evaluation of the structures and the processes.”

“I think with Russia’s actions, and the provocative actions that it has taken over the last six months, this obviously is forcing us to take another look at the relevancy of NATO and how well NATO is structured and prepared,” Hagel continued. “I think it’s also going beyond just NATO. I think it’s making all the nations of Europe take another look at the realities of the world.”

In a media availability the next day, while en route to New Delhi, India, Hagel said he hoped to see a closer relationship with India as well – which is located between Pakistan and China, is the most populous democracy in the world and is growing its economic and military influence.

“We’ll talk about where we can expand the potential for joint exercises,” he said. I’m here to pursue different possibilities and options that have been initiated over the years. We have a number of things, specific projects that we will discuss. One is the renewal of the 10-year defense framework agreement. You also know that when Secretary [Leon] Panetta was here a couple of years ago, the initiative that he presented, the Defense Trade and Technology Initiative, which has been important as it built a framework and a base to lay some specific proposals down, which we are working with the Indian government on now.”

Hagel did not name specific weapons programs but did say that Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall would join in the meetings and “take on the role of being the Pentagon’s point person on this particular initiative.”

“India has many options to do many things with different partners on all fronts, and we’re well aware of that. So this is a high priority. It’s a high priority for me to continue to build on progress that we’ve made in the past,” Hagel said. “When we talk specifically about co-production, co-development opportunities – and we know the Indians are very aware of those possibilities and are very interested in wanting that kind of arrangement – we have a number of proposals and thoughts as to how we could take this further. We have laid some things down on the table in some of these proposals that, in fact, are unique to India that we’ve not done with any other country.”

Hagel will wrap up his around-the-globe trip with a stop in Australia.