Boosting India's defence industry with US help and support was the main focus of discussions between visiting India’s Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra and US Defence Under Secretary Colin Kahl in Washington. At their meeting Tuesday, they discussed “accelerating India's indigenous defence production through bilateral defence industrial cooperation and partnership in emerging defence domains”,  according to a Pentagon spokesperson, David Hendon. Hendon said in a readout of their meeting.

“Kahl reaffirmed the importance of the US-India Major Defense Partnership to shaping the future of the Indo-Pacific”, he said.

Kahl tweeted, “We discussed a range of bilateral initiatives to advance the U.S.-India defence partnership and promote a #FreeandOpenIndoPacific”.

Kwatra's visit to Washington comes ahead of the 2+2 ministerial meeting of India’s ministers, S. Jaishankar of External Affairs and Rajnath Singh of Defence with US Secretaries Antony Blinken of State and Lloyd Austin of Defence are to meet next month in New Delhi.

Kwatra met Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Monday.

Hendon said Kwatra and Kahl “discussed initiatives to advance bilateral defence cooperation” ahead of the next 2+2 meeting.

They also exchanged views on developments related to mutual security interests, including in the Indian Ocean Region and Europe, he said. 

The range of topics they discussed included “deepening Navy-to-Navy cooperation, particularly in the undersea domain, [and] expanding information sharing and logistics cooperation to facilitate operational coordination between the US and Indian militaries”, Hendon said.

According to the US Department of Defense, military cooperation between the two nations is at an all-time high. Indian and US service members regularly exercise together, and the two governments regularly share information and intelligence, especially in the wake of the geospatial agreement signed between the two governments in 2020.

(SAM)