Rajnath Singh Meets US Counterpart Mark Esper in Bangkok

New Delhi: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday met his US counterpart Mark Esper in Bangkok, the first meeting between the two since Esper was confirmed as the US Secretary of Defence in July.

“Had an excellent meeting with US Secretary of Defence, Dr. Mark T Esper in Bangkok today. We talked about ways to expand defence cooperation between India and the United States,” Singh said on micro-blogging and networking website Twitter.

The two are in Bangkok for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meet. The talks between the two took place on the sidelines of the ASEAN meet.

Singh’s meeting with Esper comes before he has to travel with foreign minister S Jaishankar to the US next month for the 2+2 meet between India and the US, where they will go down across the table with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Esper. The 2+2 dialogue format was instituted after the Trump administration took office doing away with strategic and commercial dialogue and instead having a new framework involving the foriegn and defence ministers of the two countries.

The first round of the 2+2 talks took place in New Delhi last year when both sides had signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) that gave India access to advanced US defence systems such as armed drones that have been used with other American equipment. According to people familiar with the developments, India and the US are expected to sign the industrial security pact, known as the Industrial Security Annex (ISA), in this round of the 2+2 talks. The ISA will pave the way for the transfer of high-level technologies from the US to India and safeguard classified military information. The pact is expected to boost the participation of US defence firms in ‘Make in India’ projects through the India-US Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) that was established in 2012. The DTTI was expected to propel defence cooperation between the two countries through the co- development of defence systems by India and the US. But the initiative failed to yield desired results. With the ISA becoming operational, however, the DTTI is expected to get a new lease of life.

Source: LM

Image Courtesy: Latestly