Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh held a bilateral meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in New Delhi on 5 June 2023. The meeting was warm and cordial. The two sides discussed a wide range of bilateral defense cooperation issues, with particular attention to identifying ways to enhance industrial cooperation.
The two ministers explored ways to build resilient supply chains. Both sides will identify opportunities for the co-development of new technologies and the co-production of existing and new systems and facilitate greater collaboration between the two countries’ defense startup ecosystems. Toward these goals, they concluded a roadmap for US-India defense industrial cooperation that will guide policy direction for the coming years.
Both sides reviewed the robust and multifaceted bilateral defense cooperation activities and agreed to maintain the momentum of the engagement. They welcomed the recently held inaugural dialogues focusing on defense artificial intelligence and the defense space. They also discussed regional security issues given their shared interest in maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
The meeting was attended by senior officials from the Ministry of Defence, including Chief of Defense Staff General Anil Chauhan, Secretary of Defense Shri Giridhar Aramane and the Secretary, Department of Defense Research and Development and Chairman of the Organization for Defense Research and Development (DRDO), Dr. Samir V Kamat.
The delegation-wide talks were preceded by a Tri-Service Honor Guard to Secretary Austin. The US Secretary of Defense arrived in New Delhi on 4 June 2023 for a two-day visit.