Indo-US defence heads discuss wide range of cooperation

The Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his US counterpart Secretary of Defence Llyod J Austin on Saturday discussed wide range of defence cooperation and expanding military-to-military engagement across services, information sharing, cooperation in emerging sectors of defence, and mutual logistics support.

Austin is on his first three nation official visit abroad and to India. “I spoke with Secretary Austin immediately after he assumed charge. His visit to India despite the Covid-19 global pandemic, shows the abiding commitment of the United States to our bilateral relationship,” Singh said.

He said both the countries are keen to work together to realise the full potential of the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership.

“We reviewed the wide gamut of bilateral and multilateral exercises and agreed to pursue enhanced cooperation with the US Indo-Pacific Command, Central Command and Africa Command. Acknowledging that we have in place the foundational agreements, LEMOA, COMCASA and BECA, we discussed steps to be taken to realise their full potential for mutual benefit,” he said.

Singh also invited the US industry to take advantage of India’s liberalised foreign direct investment (FDI) policies in the defence sector. “We both agreed that there are opportunities for collaboration in defence industry,” he added.

Secretary Austin said India, in particular, is an increasingly important partner amid today’s rapidly shifting international dynamics.

“As the world faces a global pandemic and growing challenges to an open and stable international system, the US-India relationship is a stronghold of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. We discussed opportunities to elevate the US-India Major Defense Partnership…a priority of the Biden-Harris Administration… through regional security cooperation, military-to-military interactions, and defense trade,” Austin said.

He further said, “In addition, we are continuing to advance new areas of collaboration, including: information-sharing, logistics cooperation, artificial intelligence; and cooperation in new domains such as space and cyber. We also discussed engagement with like-minded partners through multilateral groupings such as the Quad and ASEAN.”

As the Indo-Pacific region faces acute transnational challenges, such as climate change, and challenges to a free and open regional order, cooperation among like-minded countries is imperative to securing shared vision for the future, he added.