The agenda of the bilateral talks between the two countries include cooperation on advanced and critical defence technologies like jet engines and more US ship dockings in India for repair and maintenance work.Â
US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin will be arriving in India today to hold talks with defence minister Rajnath Singh on a number of bilateral issues. The issues range from greater cooperation on the development of advanced technologies to joint manufacture of various defence types of equipment like ships and jet engines for fighter aircraft.
This visit will be Lloyd Austin’s second visit to India. The last stop was in March 2021, which also happened to be his seventh official visit to the Indo-Pacific region. His meeting with the Defence Minister of India for discussing bilateral issues is to be held on Monday which will include multiple defence-based cooperation talks along with industrial cooperation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official state visit to the White House is scheduled for next month.
According to defence officials, some other issues which will find a place in the bilateral talks are all-around regional security especially in the Indo-Pacific region, amidst increasing tensions and concerns over China’s activities and growing influence; capacity building and increasing the number of US ships being brought to India for maintenance, repair and overhaul. Other topics on the agenda include the advanced stage of joint manufacturing of jet engines and the development of other critical technologies, an official stated.
Advanced stages of discussions have been taking place between the two countries to enter a partnership between the American firm, General Electric (GE) and Indian-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to jointly manufacture indigenous jet engines for fighter planes. It was informed that the proposed deal between both nations will probably be announced during Prime Minister Modi‘s official state visit to the US which is scheduled for next month.
US cargo ship USNS Charles Drew docked in India for eleven days for the first time in August 2022 in Chennai at an L; T facility. A dry cargo ship of the US Navy, USNS Matthew Perry was docked in the same facility in March this year for maintenance and repair.
Bilateral talks are also scheduled next week on Tuesday between Rajnath Singh and German Federal Minister of Defence, Boris Pistorius, who will be on a four-day visit to India. The Defence Ministry has informed that Boris Pistorius will be arriving from Indonesia and apart from holding talks with Rajnath Singh, he will also be meeting a few defence start-ups at an event in New Delhi, which is to be held by Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX). After this, he is also likely to travel to Mumbai to visit the Western Naval Command and Mazagon dock shipbuilders Ltd. Headquarters.
Increasing collaboration and enhancing defence cooperation with India will be the focus and motive of the bilateral talks to be held with both the US and Germany.
