Ahead of PM Modi's Washington visit, India and US finalise roadmap for defence cooperation

India and the US on Monday firmed up an ambitious roadmap for defence industrial cooperation to accord high priority to various projects for the co-development of military platforms and hardware, a move that comes against the backdrop of the Ukraine conflict and China's increasing muscle-flexing in the Indo-Pacific region.

The roadmap was finalised during talks between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his American counterpart Lloyd Austin, two weeks ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to Washington.

At a media briefing, Austin said the US-India partnership is a "cornerstone" for a free and open Indo-Pacific and the deepening ties showed how technological innovation and growing military cooperation between the two "great powers" can be a force for global good.

The US defence secretary said the US-India cooperation matters "because we all face a rapidly changing world. We see bullying and coercion from the People's Republic of China and Russian aggression against Ukraine that seeks to redraw borders and threatens national sovereignty." It is learnt that Singh and Austin also touched upon General Electric's proposal to share technology with India for fighter jet engines and New Delhi's plan to procure 30 MQ-9B armed drones for over USD 3 billion from US defence major General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.

The US defence secretary also held separate talks with NSA Ajit Doval.

"We established an ambitious new roadmap for defence industrial cooperation with a fast-track (and) high-priority for co-development and co-production projects and to build closer ties between our defence industries," Austin said.

"We look forward to advancing some of those projects during the upcoming visits," he said, indirectly referring to Modi's upcoming tour of the US.

The two sides also deliberated on ways to increase information sharing as well as new initiatives to improve maritime cooperation, including in the undersea domain.

In a statement, the defence ministry said both sides will identify opportunities for the co-development of new technologies and the co-production of existing and new systems besides facilitating increasing collaboration between defence start-up ecosystems of the two countries.