Washington: The Biden administration is trying at deepening its army and technical cooperation with India by not solely offering it with arms and tools, but in addition helping New Delhi develop its own defense industrial base, a senior Pentagon official advised lawmakers right here on Wednesday (March 10).
“We are looking to … deepen our military-technical cooperation with India that is based on providing them arms and equipment so we can build interoperable forces and capabilities and work with India developing its own defense industrial base so that India is able to produce equipment to service their needs and to be able to work with us and others around the region,” Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs David Helvey advised lawmakers.
India is an actual accomplice, a rising accomplice of the United States, Helvey mentioned responding to a query from Congressman Doug Lamborn throughout a Congressional listening to on Indo-Pacific by the House Armed Services Committee. “We have a unique designation with India; it’s called a major defense partner,” he mentioned.
“One of the things that we are prioritising is looking at ways to operationalise this defense partnership with India to be able to look at ways where we can work together in the defense space in pursuit of common interests based on our converging strategic interest,” he mentioned.
“I think we all agree that it needs to be a better partner and a counterweight to China, so what is the Biden administration plan to build a stronger partnership with India both economically and militarily,” Congressman Lamborn requested.
“One of the issues we want to have the ability to do is constructed on among the foundational agreements that we’ve been capable of conclude with India in recent times. Say for instance, with info safety or logistics preparations to the place we are able to share extra info with India so we are able to construct a standard strategic understanding of the forms of threats that we face collectively.
“Look at how we can use our forces and Indian forces in the Indian Ocean region and beyond to be able to work together, whether it’s in maritime domain awareness or maritime security or humanitarian assistance and disaster response,” Helvey mentioned.
Admiral Phil Davidson, Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, responding to the identical query mentioned that over the course of his tenure at INDOPACOM there was some alternative to cooperate within the maritime and to help a bit bit in info sharing, some cold-weather gear, and issues like that with India’s challenges alongside the road of precise management.
“I think it’s gone a long way to deepening our relationship and really presents a key strategic opportunity I think, for the United States,” he mentioned.
In his ready testimony, Helvey mentioned that in South Asia, America’s Major Defense Partnership with India continues to deepen as the 2 nations construct interoperability by way of more and more complicated workout routines and rising defense commerce, and thru expanded info sharing and safe communications to deal with problems with shared concern.
“With the completion of all foundational agreements, the partnership is now poised to accelerate. We also are pursuing emerging partnerships with Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and the Maldives to work cooperatively to ensure the region remains free and open,” he mentioned.
