India, US start high-level talks on defence cooperation

Starting this week, India and the US have begun four days of high-level talks that will focus on expansion of defence cooperation, including production and procurement of arms and equipment, between the two countries. Defence secretary, Vijay Singh, leads the Indian delegation while Eric Edelman, under secretary of defence for policy, heads the US team.

The two sides will very likely look at increasing transfers of military equipment and technology. It is being given to understand that the US may be prepared to renew the supply of all items in the pipeline when sanctions were imposed after 1998 nuclear tests.

This is the eighth meeting of the Defence Policy Group (DPG), which is the primary mechanism set up to guide Indo-US defence relationship. The Group held its seventh meeting on 21-23 November last year.

The talks opened with a two-day session of the defence production and procurement group (DPPG) with SK Sharma, director general of acquisitions, leading the Indian side.
This will be followed by a second two-day session of the DPG, starting Wednesday, where Singh and Edelman will lead the discussions.

The DPG included an intensive exchange of views on the international strategic and security situation and on the further development of bilateral defence cooperation as envisaged under the 28 June 2005 Defence Framework, set in place by the then defence minister, Pranab Mukherjee, and former US secretary for defence, Donald Rumsfeld.

The DPG also reviewed the reports of the four sub-groups – the military cooperation group, joint technology group, senior security technology group and the defence procurement & production group.