- विज्ञापन -
New Delhi: The Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated Pete Hegseth in their first telephonic conversation after his confirmation as the US Secretary of Defence.
The two ministers reviewed the extensive India-US defence cooperation activities covering multiple domains in land, air, maritime and space. They appreciated the ongoing and remarkable expansion of the bilateral defence partnership, and reaffirmed their commitment to deepen the ties.
The two ministers decided to work together on technology cooperation, integration of defence industrial supply chains, enhanced interoperability, logistics and information sharing and joint military exercises, the Ministry of Defence added.
They also agreed to provide enhanced support to the growing defence innovation collaboration between the governments, start-ups, businesses and academic institutions. India and US agreed to work together to draft a comprehensive framework on defence cooperation, aimed at structuring the bilateral collaboration for the period 2025-2035.
Singh described the conversation as excellent, “We reviewed the ongoing defence cooperation and explored ways and means to expand and deepen the India – U.S. bilateral defence relationship. We also agreed to chart out an ambitious agenda which includes operational, intelligence, logistics and defence-industrial cooperation. Looking forward to work closely with Secreatry Hegseth.” Defence Minister said in a post on X.
India-US defence cooperation is based on “New Framework for India-US Defence Cooperation”, which was renewed for ten years in 2015. In 2016, the defence relationship was designated as a Major Defence Partnership (MDP). On 30 July 2018, India was moved into the Tier-1 of the US Department of Commerce’s Strategic Trade Authorization license exception, according to Ministry of External Affairs
