India-US Close a Jet Deal Post the Meeting Between Lloyd Austin and Rajnath Singh

The US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has arrived in India for a two-day visit and initiated talks with Rajnath Singh, the Indian Defense Minister, to discuss the status of India-US defense cooperation.                          

Both India and the US are initiating negotiations for a security of supply (SoS) arrangement and a reciprocal defence procurement (RDP) to promote long-term supply chain stability as defense sources. The deal over assembling the General Electric GE-414 jet in India has achieved an outcome almost, and the expectations regarding the same are anticipated to be concluded during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the US State.

The visit of US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd J. Austin to India, and his meeting with Rajnath Singh, the Indian Defence Minister, has laid a roadmap for defence industrial cooperation, guiding policy direction in future years. The meeting addressed critical subjects like capacity building, maritime domain awareness (MDA), strategic infrastructure, and infra development, in addition to planning of setting up US companies’ maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities in India.

India has put forth a request to the US companies to increase sourcing from India via Boeing under the nega-civil aircraft deal, signed with Air India. Regional security environments like the Indo-Pacific issues were addressed in the meeting alongside, addressing the initiative on critical and emerging technologies (iCET).

Mr Austin and Mr Singh are reviewing regulatory hurdles impeding closer industry-to-industry cooperation, as both the US and India are initiating negotiations on an SoS arrangement and RDP agreement. It aims at promoting long-term supply chain stability. Reaching India on Sunday evening from Singapore, Mr Austin has come for a two-day visit to India to participate in the bilateral meeting and delegation-level talks.