Washington and New Delhi established an ambitious roadmap for military industrial cooperation on Monday amid India’s efforts to reduce its dependence on arms supplier Russia and localise defence production.
“We established an ambitious new roadmap for defence industrial cooperation, which will fast-track high priority co-development and co-production projects,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said as he wrapped up an overnight visit to New Delhi.
Moscow and New Delhi have been allies for decades, with Russia by far India’s biggest arms supplier.
Now India is looking to diversify, both by broadening its sources of imports and ramping up domestic production.
Western countries, including the United States and France, are negotiating multi-billion-dollar contracts, and diplomats say India is putting a high priority on technology transfer as part of any deal.
The agreement will fast-track technology cooperation and co-production in areas including air combat and land mobility systems, the “undersea domain”, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, the US Defense Department said.
The initiative “aims to change the paradigm for cooperation between US and Indian defense sectors”, it said, and “could provide India access to cutting-edge technologies and support India’s defense modernisation plans”.
Austin, speaking to reporters after meeting his counterpart Rajnath Singh, said boosting partnerships with India came against a backdrop of “bullying and coercion” from China, as well as Russian “aggression against Ukraine”.—AFP
