New Delhi. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on February 6, spoke with US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth to discuss and strengthen defence ties between India and the United States.
Both reviewed the ongoing defence cooperation across land, air, maritime, and space domains. They aim to deepen collaboration in technology, defence industrial supply chains, interoperability, logistics, and information sharing, including joint military exercises. They agreed to collaborate on drafting a comprehensive framework to structure bilateral defence collaboration for 2025-2035. Defence Innovation Enhanced support will be provided to growing defence innovation collaboration between governments, start-ups, businesses, and academic institutions.
Singh and Hegseth agreed to chart out an ambitious agenda that includes operational, intelligence, logistics, and defence-industrial cooperation. US-India Defence Industrial Cooperation Roadmap Progress has been made, including ongoing collaboration to advance priority co-production arrangements for jet engines, munitions, and ground mobility systems.
India signed a $3.5 billion deal with the US to acquire 31 MQ-9B drones to boost defence preparedness. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is negotiating a deal with GE Aerospace for the joint production of F414 engines in India.
Singh described the conversation as “excellent”. Both sides acknowledged the remarkable expansion of the bilateral defence partnership and reaffirmed their commitment to deepening ties. This conversation occurred in the lead-up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US the following week.
