India and the US are likely to sign crucial agreements, including the new ten-year Defence Framework Pact and the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI), during US President Barack Obama’s visit to New Delhi later this week.
While the two overarching pacts are likely to come through, deals for 22 Apache attack helicopters worth over $1.5 billion, 15 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters worth $1.1 billion, and four more P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft pegged at $1 billion are in the pipeline. India has already bought eight P-8I aircraft costing $2.1 billion.
On the DTTI issue, sources said the US is pushing for what it calls “transformative defence technologies” for co-development and co-production with India under DTTI, thereby in sync with the Modi Government’s “Make-in-India” policy. Sources said India is likely to select two technologies for producing mini-Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and surveillance modules as the first step for joint production under DTTI.
While the two countries will renew the Framework Pact for next ten years after the present agreement’s term ended earlier this year, talks are on between officials of two countries to finalise the contents of Technology Initiative to expand its scope for sharing technology, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said here on Wednesday.
The Framework to strengthen defence ties were signed by then Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld in 2005 for a period of ten years.
As regards the DTTI, the US is keen to ink it in an effort to jointly produce weapons with India besides providing cutting-edge technology to the Indian defence industry. However, India is cautiously proceeding on this front as it fears that the US may stop supplying technology midway as it had done in the past after India carried out nuclear tests in 1999.
Incidentally, the US has now emerged as the biggest weapon supplier to India by bagging contracts worth over $10 billion over the last few years. Russia, the time-tested strategic partner of India for more than 50 years, slipped to second position followed by Israel and France.
While Parrikar said the expansion of DTTI is expected, he refused to get into specific projects, saying discussions are in final stages. “At this moment, nothing can be confirmed. let the finality come. In the next two-three days, the teams will finalise. It would then be approved by the Prime Minister,” he said while interacting with journalists on the sidelines of National Cadet Corps (NCC) function here.
Parikar had last week said India and the US are likely to sign the new 10-year Defence Framework Agreement during Obama’s visit. He had also said technology transfer initiatives and trade can be important areas of the new framework. Also, focus will be on joint development of technology, he said hinting that India no longer wants a buyer-seller relationship in the field of defence production.
Meanwhile, the Defence Framework is likely to enhance the bilateral defence partnership by stepping up joint military exercises and through more in-depth intelligence-sharing, maritime security among others. It will also include a drive against terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.