Major Defense Partnership In India’s Advanced Equipment Manufacturing: US Official

The Biden administration’s point person for South and Central Asia said on Thursday that the US and India are working on a big defense partnership that will help India make high-tech, modern defense equipment. They hope to make an announcement about this in the next few months.

US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald said, “I think it makes a lot of sense for India to make world-class defense equipment for itself and maybe even to sell to the rest of the world.”

The senior State Department official, on the other hand, didn’t give any information about the major defense partnership to make high-tech military equipment in India.

“We are already big friends when it comes to defense. In the last 20 years, we have traded more than USD 20 billion worth of weapons. And I know that our private companies, governments, and defense offices talk regularly about how we can work together,” he said.

Lu said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India plan got American support for the first time at the Two Plus Two Dialogue in April. This was a meeting between India’s Minister of Defense and Minister of External Affairs and their American counterparts, the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State.

“We can see that India is getting less reliant on other countries and trying to make its own defense supplies and equipment. This is a process we strongly support.” And I hope that in the next few months, there will be news of a big deal between our two countries to make high-tech, modern, and effective defense weapons in India.

He said that this is “absolutely part” of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (ICET) Dialogue, which was started by India’s National Security Advisor Ajit K. Doval and his American colleague Jake Sullivan.

“But this is something we’ve been working on with India for a few years. I think you’ll see that the next year will be a turning point for how we work together on defense,” he said.

Lu, on the other hand, didn’t say anything else. “I don’t think I can say anything more in depth. It will be exciting, though. “I hope that by the end of the year, we’ll be able to talk in more detail about what these specific pieces of defense cooperation are,” he said.

A fact sheet from the Indian Embassy says that defense cooperation between India and the US is based on the “New Framework for India-US Defense Cooperation,” which was renewed in 2015 for ten years.

The defense connection was named a Major Defense Partnership (MDP) in 2016, with the goal of building a complete, long-lasting, and mutually beneficial defense partnership.

The US Department of Commerce’s Strategic Trade Authorization license exception moved India to Tier-1 on July 30, 2018.

The Defence Policy Group (DPG), which is led by the Defence Secretary and the Under Secretary of Defence (Policy), is a place where all defense dialogues and processes can be looked at as a whole.

In August 2022, the USNS Charles Drew went to Chennai to get repairs and other services. This was the first time a US Navy ship had ever been fixed in India.

Several defense agreements have been signed, including the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Association (2016), the Memorandum of Intent between the US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Indian Defence Innovation Organisation – Innovation for Defence Excellence (2018), the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (2018), the Industrial Security Agreement (2019), and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (2020).

Yudh Abhyas (Army), Vajra Prahar (Special Forces), and Tiger Triumph (begun in 2019) are all examples of bilateral drills.

In April 2022, India became an Associate Partner of the Combined Maritime Force (CMF), which is based in Bahrain. In November 2022, the Australian Navy joined the yearly Naval Exercise between the US, India, and Japan. The US took part in the multinational Exercise Milan 2022, which was held in India.