Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with U.S. Secretary of Defence Mr. Lloyd Austin ahead of their bilateral meeting in New Delhi on June 05, 2023. Photo: Special Arrangement
India and U.S. on Monday concluded a roadmap for ‘Defence Industrial Cooperation’ which shall guide the policy direction for the next few years towards cooperation in high technology areas and identifying opportunities for co-development and co-production. This was concluded during the bilateral meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and visiting U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. The visit comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US later this month.
“The two Ministers explored ways of building resilient supply chains. Both sides will identify opportunities for co-development of new technologies and co-production of existing & new systems and facilitate increased collaboration between defence start-up ecosystems of the two countries. Towards these objectives, they concluded a roadmap for US-India Defence Industrial Cooperation which shall guide the policy direction for the next few years,” a Defence Ministry statement said. “The two sides discussed a substantial range of bilateral defence cooperation issues, with particular focus on identifying ways to strengthen industrial cooperation.”
Mr. Austin reached India on Sunday evening from Singapore on a two-day visit and before the bilateral meeting and delegation level talks on Monday was presented a tri-service guard of honour.
After the meeting, Mr. Singh said on Twitter that the talks revolved around enhancing defence cooperation in several areas including convergence of strategic interests and enhanced security cooperation. “India-US partnership is critical for ensuring a free, open and rules-bound Indo-Pacific region. We look forward to closely work with the US across the domains for capacity building and further consolidating our strategic partnership,” he said.
Glimpses of bilateral meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and U.S. Secretary of Defence Mr Lloyd Austin in New Delhi on June 05, 2023. Photo: Special Arrangement
Both sides reviewed the robust and multifaceted bilateral defence cooperation activities and agreed to maintain the momentum of engagement, the statement said while noting that they welcomed the inaugural dialogues held recently focusing on defence Artificial Intelligence and defence space. “They also discussed the regional security issues given their shared interest in maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” the statement added.
On May 23, the inaugural U.S.-India Advanced Domains Defence Dialogue (AD3) was held in New Delhi, with the U.S. represented by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Space Policy Vipin Narang and Director Michael Horowitz of the Emerging Capabilities Policy Office. This Dialogue was agreed to the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in 2022 as part of efforts “to deepen collaboration on evolving new defence domains, with an emphasis on space and artificial intelligence.”
“U.S. and Indian officials exchanged views on the unique defence challenges in these domains, their respective defence policies, and areas of convergence and opportunities for further cooperation. They also discussed priorities for maintaining safety, stability, and promoting responsible uses of technologies in these domains,” a US Department of Defence spokesperson said in a release.