New Delhi: India on Monday asked the US to not trust Pakistan when it comes to the supply of Western weapons and technology. The message was conveyed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh while he held talks with US Secretary of Defence Llyod Austin III here.
Singh emphasized that Pakistan has a history of misusing and diverting such equipment, which poses a threat to regional stability. Lloyd Austin arrived in India for a two-day visit from June 4-5 to discuss ways to expand bilateral strategic cooperation ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington DC from June 21-24.
Besides that, China was also discussed during the talks. Issues regarding regional security were discussed, including the Indo-Pacific. The border issue with China at LAC also came up during the talks. Briefing the media after the bilateral meeting, US Secretary of Defence Llyod Austin said, "We communicate with each other and prevent any incident from escalating out of control."
According to sources, the GE414 jet engine deal is in the final stages and will be announced during PM Modi’s US visit. Moreover, the INDUS-X project will also be launched to promote the India and US defence innovation ecosystems. Apart from General Electric's jet engine deal, India's proposal to purchase 30 MQ-9B armed drones from US defence major General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc (GA-ASI) for more than USD 3 billion, also came up during the talks.
Meanwhile, taking a dig at China, US Defence Secretary said, "We face a rapidly changing world. We see bullying and coercion from China, Russian aggression against Ukraine that seeks to redraw borders by force and threatens national sovereignty, as well as transnational challenges, such as terrorism and climate change".
He further highlighted the importance of joint military exercise between India and the US and said, "So democracies must now rally together around not just our common interest, but also our shared values. Preserving and protecting the freedoms that are essential to peace and prosperity will require vigorous leadership from the United States and India".
"And so we still have a lot of work to do, but I am confident that the US-India Partnership will help to secure an open and prosperous future for the Indo-Pacific and the wider world,” he added. Austin and Rajnath explored ways of building resilient supply chains. Both sides reiterated to identify opportunities for the co-development of new technologies and co-production of existing & new systems and facilitate increased collaboration between defence start-up ecosystems of the two countries.
Towards these objectives, they concluded a roadmap for US-India Defence Industrial Cooperation which shall guide the policy direction for the next few years. The leaders reviewed the robust and multifaceted bilateral defence cooperation activities and agreed to maintain the momentum of engagement.
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