In a new push to deepen India-US defence cooperation and bolster the long-term strategic partnership, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar held talks with his American counterpart Ashton Carter in Washington on Thursday.
At a joint news conference after their meeting at the Pentagon, both leaders voiced immense satisfaction over the “historic steps” already taken this year and the new initiatives under way to expand bilateral defence cooperation in terms of defence production and military exercises.
Carter assured the US’s willingness to identify further opportunities for co-development and co-production of defence systems under the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI), even as Parrikar highlighted the Narendra Modi Government’s decisions to raise FDI limits to 49 per cent in the defence sector along with a liberal offsets policy and improved ease of doing business.
“US-India defence partnership will become the anchor of global security,” Carter said, pointing to the importance Washington attaches to the bilateral strategic partnership. Both sought to highlight the framework defence agreement, signed last June, that will chart the course of bilateral defence relations over the next 10 years.
Speaking of complementary initiatives, Carter referred to Prime Minister Modi’s “Make in India” policy and the US’s DTTI, as also India’s “Act East” policy and the US policy of Rebalance to Asia-Pacific.
Carter announced that in addition to the Malabar military exercises which the US and India hold jointly annually, India will also participate in the Rim of the Pacific exercise next year, besides returning to the Red Flag premier air to air combat exercise after a gap of eight years.
Parrikar said that India today conducts more joint military exercises with the United States than with any other country.
Inviting the US industry to take advantage of India’s new reform initiatives, Parrikar said immense opportunities have now been opened up for American companies to set up their manufacturing enterprises in India in collaboration with Indian companies.
In what is his first US visit as Defence Minister, Parrikar arrived in Washington on Wednesday after a visit to the US Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii.
He was also slated to proceed along with Secretary Carter to Norfolk in Virginia to witness live flight exercises aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Eisenhower.