New Delhi, 4 Jun: US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in India on Sunday on a two-day visit to explore ways to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation, especially in areas of transfer of critical technologies for co-development of military hardware.
\nSecretary Austin\u2019s trip comes over two weeks ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s state visit to Washington during which the two sides are expected to unveil initiatives to expand the India-US global strategic partnership.
\n\u201cI\u2019m returning to India to meet with key leaders for discussions about strengthening our Major Defense Partnership. Together, we\u2019re advancing a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,\u201d the US defence secretary tweeted shortly after landing in New Delhi.
\nDefence Minister Rajnath Singh and Austin are set to discuss in their talks on Monday General Electric\u2019s proposal to share technology with India for fighter jet engines and New Delhi\u2019s plan to procure 30 MQ-9B armed drones at a cost of over USD 3 billion from US defence major General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc besides other issues, people familiar with the matter said.
\nIndia has been looking at manufacturing of jet engines in India under the framework of technology transfer to power its fighter aircraft.
\nIn June 2016, the US designated India a \u201cMajor Defence Partner\u201d paving the way for sharing of critical military equipment and technology.
\nChina\u2019s aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific as well as along the Line of Actual Control and ways to combat the threat of terrorism are also likely to figure in the discussions between Singh and Austin.
\nThe US Defence Secretary arrived from Singapore. It is Secretary Austin\u2019s second visit to India. His previous trip to India was in March 2021.
\nIn his address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday, the US defence secretary said, \u201cOur Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology with India lets us explore new ways to co-develop key defence platforms.\u201d Austin said the US is \u201cstepping up planning, and coordination, and training with our friends from the East China Sea to the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean.\u201d \u201cThat includes staunch allies such as Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. And it includes as well such valued partners as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and clearly our hosts here today in Singapore,\u201d he said.
\nIn a major move, President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Modi announced in May last year that the US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) to elevate and expand the strategic technology partnership and defence industrial cooperation between the two countries.
\nThe iCET is expected to forge closer linkages between the government, academia and industry of the two countries in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 5G and 6G, biotech, space and semiconductors.
\nOn Saturday, Austin tweeted that he was deeply saddened by the train accident in Balasore.
\n\u201cDeeply saddened to hear of the tragedy in Balasore. Our hearts go out to our partners in India. I will convey our condolences in person when I meet with senior leaders in India in the coming days,\u201d he said.
\nReplying to the tweet, Singh said: \u201cDeeply touched by your condolences. Thanks for your support. Looking forward to meet you tomorrow.\u201d The India-US defence and strategic ties have been on an upswing in the last few years.
\nThe two countries have inked key defence and security pacts over the past few years, including the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016 that allows their militaries to use each other\u2019s bases for repair and replenishment of supplies.
\nThe two sides also signed COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) in 2018 which provides for interoperability between the two militaries and provides for the sale of high-end technology from the US to India.
\nIn October 2020, India and the US sealed the BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement) agreement to further boost bilateral defence ties. The pact provides for sharing of high-end military technology, logistics and geospatial maps between the two countries. PTI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, 4 Jun: US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in India on Sunday on a two-day visit to explore ways to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation, especially in areas of transfer of critical technologies for co-development of military hardware. Secretary Austin\u2019s trip comes over two weeks ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s state visit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-217726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}