The two countries will increase cooperation on co-production and co-development of technologies under the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative.
India and the US on Tuesday finalised the text of an Information Exchange Annex (IEA) on the critical Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation even as the former is working on a 60,000-tonne to 65,000-tonne super aircraft carrier design.
A joint statement issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama met in Washington heralded a major build up on the overall India-US defence ties.
Recognising India as a ‘major defense partner’, the US has committed to "facilitate technology sharing” to a level “commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners”. This would entail India receiving a license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives, the statement said.
India and the US have also finalised the text of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) after the two nations, in April, agreed in-principle to sign it to allow military logistic sharing between the two countries.
The two sides will increase cooperation on co-production and co-development of technologies under the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) and welcomed the establishment of new DTTI working groups to include items covering Naval Systems, Air Systems, and other Weapons Systems.
India and the US have also committed to deepen cooperation on cybersecurity and moving towards finalizing the Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship in the near term. Cyber collaboration on critical infrastructure, cybercrime, and malicious cyber activity by state and non-state actors, capacity building, and cybersecurity research and development are on the cards.
Notably, last month, USA had backed India’s claim to the membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the 48-nation exclusive bloc that trades nuclear supplies among them.
The US also helped India in getting a waiver from the NSG on the civil nuclear deal as India has neither signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), considered a basis for NSG membership. However, India recognises the NSG consensus.
Currently, the Indian Navy is on an operational deployment in South China sea and is going to take part in the prestigious Malabar exercise alongside the US and Japan navies. India and the US last month held their first maritime security dialogue too in New Delhi. The dialogue concerned Asia-Pacific maritime challenges, naval cooperation, and multilateral engagement.
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