Defense minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that both India and United States share a common vision of a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region.
He was addressing the 2+2 ministerial dialogue between India and USA and said that the partnership between the two countries is of critical importance for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and the Indian Ocean Region.
After wide discussions on a range of bilateral, defence, and global issues, the defence minister noted that it was heartening to note that as the world’s largest democracies, we have a convergence of views on most of them.
2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between India and USA
The defence minister noted that the ongoing 2+2 ministerial dialogue between the two countries will help in maintaining the momentum of the India-US relationship and taking our work forward. Our two great nations have complementary interests and a shared will to achieve mutual goals.
While sharing his assessments of the situation in our neighborhood and the Indian Ocean Region, the defence minister also talked about the use of terrorism as an instrument of statecraft against India came up prominently.
Talking about the economic, security, and defence cooperation between India and USA, he said our extensive engagement has yielded important results.
Some of these include concluding a Space Situational Awareness Agreement between the Department of Space from India and the Department of Defence of the USA; commencing the defence space and defense Artificial Intelligence dialogues in near future; significant progress on other initiatives and agreements under discussion; and a shared desire to increase the scope and complexity of our military exercises.
Combined Maritime Force (CMF) Bahrain
The defence minister said that our military-to-military engagements have continued in spite of challenges from the Pandemic.
He expressed happiness that India has joined the multilateral Combined Maritime Force (CMF) based in Bahrain, as an Associate Partner.
This, he said, will strengthen cooperation in regional security in the Western Indian Ocean.
“We are on course in effectively implementing COMCASA, and complete implementation of BECA”, he noted.
Defence Technology and Trade Initiative
He also talked about the agreement between the two countries to explore further cooperation in the fields of Defence Cyber, and Special Forces and expand the scope of logistics cooperation under LEMOA and during joint exercises.
“Both sides have agreed on the need to revitalize the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) with joint projects on advanced and emerging and critical military technologies, to be executed quickly”, he said.
Talking about India’s desire to take this partnership towards co-development and co-production with US companies, he called for increased investments by US defense companies in India under the ‘Make in India’ program.
Partnership in Industrial collaboration and Research
He said that the participation of US entities in Industrial collaboration and partnership in research and development will be critical for the success of India’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ campaigns.
Talking about the 2+2 ministerial meeting today, he said that it is an important step in strengthening the strategic defence engagement between India and US and will enable us to work alongside in a number of areas of mutual interest.
“Our increased cooperation will be critical to maintaining peace and security and ensuring free access to global commons”, he said.
Lastly, the defence minister thanked US Secretary Austin and Secretary Blinken for their hospitality and their valuable contribution to furthering the India-US partnership.
He also invited the two Secretaries to India at a mutually convenient time for the next 2+2 Ministerial meeting.
