Outgoing US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter has said that India-US defence relationship is moving on the right path and that the two countries are discussing ways to develop this partnership through technology sharing and co-production.
“We’re on the right path. It’s just a matter of taking those steps. And they involve deepening our cooperation in lots of ways. I mean, there are exercises and other kinds of operational activities,” Carter told media persons at his final Pentagon news conference.
In various capacities, Carter has been closely involved in building the India-US defence relationship over the years. In the last few years, he gave a great impetus to the ties between the two largest democracies of the world.
Last summer, he was instrumental in US declaring India as a major defence partner.
“There is something that I think Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and Defence Minister (Manohar) Parrikar have been equally intent upon as President Obama and myself, which is the development of defence relationships for new technology, which involve technology sharing, co-production, and so forth,” Carter said in response to a question.
“We have a great number of projects. I was in New Delhi not long ago and discussing all these, and there are many of them — so too many to enumerate. All of them on course. They all have their own schedules and sort of technical timelines to them,” he said.
“But this is a relationship which is, I’ve said many times, is destined for the future because of the nature of our two societies, the values that we share; the human relationship between our peoples,” Carter said.
(With PTI inputs)
