Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh held a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of Defence Mr Lloyd Austin in New Delhi on November 10, 2023. The two Ministers comprehensively discussed a wide range of defence and strategic issues. There was particular focus on enhancing defence industrial cooperation and getting the defence industries from both sides together to cooperatively co-develop and co-produce defence systems.

 The Ministers explored ways and means to advance their defence technology cooperation with joint research in critical areas. They reviewed the progress of the India-US Defence Industrial Ecosystem, INDUS-X, which was launched in June this year and aims to expand the strategic technology partnership and defence industrial cooperation between the governments, businesses and academic institutions of India and US.

 Secretary Austin welcomed India’s decision to elevate to full membership of the Combined Maritime Forces, a multilateral construct headquartered in Bahrain.

 The Raksha Mantri symbolically handed over to Secretary Austin some items recovered in Assam as part of the US Defence POW MIA Accounting Agency Mission. The items include parts of parachute, uniform and airplane of the US forces from the World War II-era. The Ministers, before concluding, drew up an agenda for future joint work for their teams.

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ABB/Savvy