India-US relations: The Pentagon stated that the United States wants to be India's "premier partner" in its remarkable growth story as well as its "first choice" security partner. Brig Gen Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon's press secretary, made these comments on Wednesday in response to a query regarding the recently announced India-US initiative on vital emerging technologies, which includes a sizable defence component.
“The high level of participation from across the US government, US industry, and our universities is unprecedented, and sends a strong signal that the United States wants not only to be India’s security partner of first resort – but to be the premier partner in India’s extraordinary growth story,” Ryder said.
According to him, the Department of Defense is eager to collaborate with other US agencies and partners as part of the United States-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).
US looks to bolster defence cooperation with India
“We look forward to sharing more information on our defence cooperation with India as the new initiatives develop moving forward," Ryder said.
The Pentagon Press Secretary further said that these initiatives will accelerate a shift from defence sales to defence joint production and development and promote integration between US and Indian defence firms.
Earlier this month, iCET was launched at the direction of US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who after their Tokyo meeting in May 2022 announced to elevate and expand the strategic technology partnership and defence industrial cooperation between the governments, businesses, and academic institutions of the two countries.
Under the iCET, the two countries have identified six areas of cooperation which would include co-development and co-production, that would gradually be expanded to Quad, then to NATO, followed by Europe and the rest of the world.
India-US relations
It should be mentioned here that India-US bilateral relations have developed into a "global strategic partnership", based on shared democratic values and increasing convergence of interests on bilateral, regional and global issues. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, regular exchange of high-level political visits has provided sustained momentum to bilateral cooperation, while the wide-ranging and ever-expanding dialogue architecture has established a long-term framework for India-US engagement.
Currently, India and the United States enjoy close relations and have deep ties on issues such as counterterrorism mutual distrust of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, and Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific.
(With inputs from AP)
