washington: A major Indo-US bilateral defense collaboration is in the works to build sophisticated modern defense equipment for India, the Biden administration’s point person for South and Central Asia said on Thursday, expected to be signed in the next few months. An announcement will be made. I think it is important for India to produce world-class defense equipment for its own needs and potentially as an exporter to the world, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu told PTI in an interview. told.
However, the senior State Department official refrained from giving details of the major defense cooperation to manufacture modern and sophisticated defense equipment in India.
We are already a major partner in the defense sector. In the last 20 years, we have had a defense trade of over USD 20 billion. And I know that our private companies and our governments, our defense ministries are talking on a regular basis about how we cooperate, he said.
Lu pointed out that during the Two Plus Two Dialogue last April, which included India’s Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and their American counterparts, the Defense Secretary and the Secretary of State, there was US support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative for the first time . ,
We can see that India is moving away from dependence on other countries and wants to produce defense supplies and defense equipment in India itself and this is a process that we strongly support. And I hope that in the coming months you will see announcements of major cooperation between our countries on sophisticated, modern, capable defense equipment that will be made in India. Lu said this in response to a question from PTI-language.
He said it is part of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET) Dialogue launched by India’s National Security Advisor Ajit K Doval and his US counterpart Jake Sullivan.
But this is something that we have been working on with India for many years. I think you will see that this year will be significant in terms of our defense cooperation,? They said.
Lu, however, declined to give any further details. I think that’s all I can elaborate on. But it would be exciting. And I hope by the end of the year we’ll have more detailed discussions about what those specific defense cooperation items are, he said.
According to a fact sheet by the Indian Embassy, India-US defense cooperation is based on the new Framework for India-US Defense Cooperation, which was renewed in 2015 for a period of ten years.
In 2016, the defense relationship was designated as a Major Defense Partnership (MDP) to build a comprehensive, enduring and mutually beneficial defense partnership. On July 30, 2018, India was moved to Tier-I of the US Department of Commerce’s Strategic Trade Authorization License Exception.
Defense Policy Group (DPG) chaired by Defense Secretary and Under Secretary (Policy) provides a forum for comprehensive review of defense dialogues/mechanisms.
In August 2022, a US Navy Ship (USNS) Charles Drew visited Chennai for repairs and allied services. This was the first repair of a US Navy ship in India. Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Association (2016); MoU between US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), and Indian Defense Innovation Organization – Innovation for Defense Excellence (2018); Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (2018); Industrial Security Agreement (2019); Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (2020).
Battle Exercises (Army) in Bilateral Exercises; Vajra Prahar (Special Forces), and a tri-services exercise Tiger Triumph (inaugurated in 2019). India joined the multilateral Combined Maritime Force (CMF) based in Bahrain as a cooperative partner in April 2022. In November 2022, the Australian Navy joined the US-India-Japan Malabar annual naval exercise. The US participated in India’s multilateral exercise MILAN 2022.