This was announced in the India-US joint statement issued at the close of Carter’s visit to New Delhi.
Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and United States Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter on Thursday finalized the specifications for designating India as a ‘Major Defense Partner’ of the US.
This was announced in the India-US joint statement issued at the close of Carter’s visit to New Delhi.
“The designation as a ‘Major Defense Partner’ is a status unique to India and institutionalizes the progress made to facilitate defense trade and technology sharing with India to a level at par with that of the United States’ closest allies and partners, and ensures enduring cooperation into the future,†the joint statement noted.
India was accorded this status during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Washington in June. The joint statement issued then had acknowledged the US-India defense relationship as a possible “anchor of stability,†with the United States saying it will “continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partnersâ€.
The finalisation reached pertains to US licensing rules and stipulations on which non-papers were exchanged by both sides. This status is bestowed upon the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and the US treaty allies such as Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Japan and South Korea.
Both sides reviewed the progress in defense ties in recent years, and welcomed the “tremendous progress†achieved under the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) intended to promote opportunities for co-production and co-development of weapon systems and platforms.
“The DTTI will strengthen India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and both sides committed to convening all new DTTI working groups prior to the next DTTI Group meeting anticipated for February 2017,†the statement said.
Carter’s farewell visit to India is his seventh interaction with Parrikar, and the two sides “applauded the deepened scope of India-US military-to-military ties, which includes a dramatic increase in defense trade.