US supports India to get own defense industrial base
THE Biden administration is helping New Delhi develop its own defense industrial base to allow it to work with the US and others around the region, a senior Pentagon official has told lawmakers on Wednesday.
This is in addition to providing India with arms and equipment as part of the deepening military and technical cooperation between the two countries, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs David Helvey said during a Congressional hearing on the Indo-Pacific region by the House Armed Services Committee.
Responding to a question from Congressman Doug Lamborn, Helvey said: ‘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.'
‘We have a unique designation with India; it's called a Major Defense Partner,' he said, ahead of US Defense Secretary Lloyd J Austin's first visit to India from March 19 to 21 that is expected to focus on ways to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific and strengthen overall defense and security ties.
Austin said he would be travelling to India to meet his counterpart Rajnath Singh and other senior national security leaders to discuss deepening the US-India Major Defense Partnership
and advancing cooperation between the two countries.
During the Congressional hearing, Helvey said one of the things that the US was prioritizing is looking at ways to operationalize the defense partnership with India to be able to look at ways where both countries can work together in the defense space in pursuit of common interests based on their converging strategic interest.
‘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 asked.
‘One of the things we would like to be able to do is built on some of the foundational agreements that we have been able to conclude with India in recent years,' Helvey said.