‘US defence firms must tap into Make in India’

NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday made a fresh pitch to American firms to carry out joint research and development, co-production of systems, and manufacturing and maintenance of military hardware in the country to tap the opportunities under the ‘Make in India, Make for the World’ initiative.

“Of late, some US companies have expanded their local presence in partnership with Indian industry to achieve our aim of ‘Make in India, Make for the World’. We believe this is just a beginning,” Singh said while addressing the members of the American Chamber of Commerce in India.

“With increasing business, we aspire for increased investments by US companies in India. Making full use of the Industrial Security Agreement (ISA), we need to facilitate collaboration and indigenisation of defence technology and boost the participation of US and Indian companies in each other’s defence supply chains,” he said.

The two countries had signed ISA in December 2019 to facilitate the exchange of classified information between their defence industries.

Singh’s pitch for increased US participation in the Indian defence sector came amid New Delhi’s renewed thrust on indigenisation of weapons and systems, cutting down military imports and getting a toehold in foreign defence markets.

His comments also came amid India’s balancing act between Russia and the US following the Ukraine war and Washington’s attempts to wean India away from its dependence on Russian military hardware.

In an interview with HT this month, Singh said India would not allow its relationship with a third country to adversely affect US “core national interests”.