Major defence collaboration in work to manufacture sophisticated, modern equipment in India: U.S. official

A major India-U.S. bilateral defence collaboration is in the works for India to make sophisticated modern defence equipment, the Biden administration’s point person for South and Central Asia said on Thursday, hoping an announcement regarding this will be made in the next few months.

A major India-U.S. bilateral defence collaboration is in the works for India to make sophisticated modern defence equipment, the Biden administration’s point person for South and Central Asia said on Thursday, hoping an announcement regarding this will be made in the next few months.

“I think it makes eminent sense for India to produce world-class defence equipment for its own needs, and potentially as an exporter, for the world,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu told PTI in an interview.

The senior State Department official, however, refrained from giving details of the major defence collaboration to manufacture modern and sophisticated defence equipment in India.

“We are already major partners in the defence field. We, over the last 20 years, have had a defence trade of over $20 billion. And I know our private companies and our governments, our ministries of defence are talking on a regular basis about how we cooperate,” he said.

Mr. Lu pointed out that last April during the Two Plus Two Dialogue involving India’s Minister of Defence and External Affairs Minister and their American counterparts Secretary of Defence and Secretary of State, for the first time there was American support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India initiative.

“We can see that India is shifting away from dependency on other countries and looking to produce defence supplies, and defence equipment in India itself and that's a process we strongly support. And I hope in the coming months that you will see announcements, a major collaboration between our countries for sophisticated, modern, capable defence equipment that will be made in India,” Mr. Lu told PTI in response to a question.

This is “absolutely part” of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (ICET) Dialogue that was launched by India’s National Security Advisor Ajit K. Doval and his American counterpart Jake Sullivan, he noted.