At a meeting with visiting US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin on Monday, June 5, India and the US concluded a roadmap for defence industrial collaboration intended to provide access to cutting-edge technologies and co-production of military equipment and hardware.
India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, and his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin, finalized the blueprint in New Delhi two weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official visit to the United States.
The Secretary and Minister Singh applauded the completion of a new Roadmap for the US-India Defence Industrial Partnership, which will accelerate technology cooperation and co-production across sectors such as air combat and land mobility systems, surveillance, intelligence, reconnaissance, munitions, and the undersea domain. This project attempts to shift the paradigm for defence cooperation between the United States and India, including concrete ideas that might offer India access to cutting-edge technologies while also supporting India’s defence modernization ambitions. General Electric’s proposal to produce GE414 jet engines in India, which is “in a mature state,” was discussed.
Austin described the US-India collaboration as a “cornerstone” for a free and open Indo-Pacific, saying that the developing links demonstrated how innovative technology and expanding military cooperation between the two “great powers” can be a force for the world’s good.
According to the Ministry of Defence, both sides will identify possibilities for collaboration on fresh innovations and the collaborative production of existing and new systems. The regional security environment, especially the Indo-Pacific, was also discussed. Austin also met with Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor.
The meeting between Austin and Singh was “warm and cordial,” according to the ministry, and the two parties covered a “substantial range” of bilateral defence partnership issues, with a special emphasis on identifying methods for boosting industrial cooperation.
The Secretary and Minister Singh also promised to evaluate regulatory barriers inhibiting closer industry-to-industry cooperation and to begin discussions on a security of supply arrangement and a reciprocal Defence procurement arrangement to promote long-term supply chain stability.
The Secretary and his counterparts also talked about the growing necessity of defence innovation and collaboration in emerging sectors, including space, artificial intelligence, and cyberspace. They lauded the recent establishment of a new Advanced Domains Defence Dialogue and pledged to broaden the range of mutual defence collaboration to include every domain.
Singh said of the meeting on Twitter that the partnership between India and the United States is critical for ensuring an open, free, and rule-bound Indo-Pacific region. They look forward to working closely with the US across areas to create capacity and strengthen their strategic alliance.
They also applauded the launch of the India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X), a new initiative aimed at advancing cutting-edge technology cooperation. The initiative, which will be launched on June 21 by the US-India Business Council, is intended to supplement existing government-to-government collaboration by encouraging innovative partnerships between US and Indian businesses, start-up accelerators, investors, and academic research institutions.
The Secretary and Minister Singh also agreed to increase operational collaboration across all military services in order to promote India’s leadership role as an Indo-Pacific security provider. They talked about new ways to improve information exchange and cooperation in the marine environment.
