NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th October, 2020) Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has described his Monday talks with his US counterpart, Mark Esper, as fruitful and conducive to a further deepening of defense cooperation between India and the United States.
The meeting took place in New Delhi. Aside from Singh and Esper, the talks were attended by the chiefs of staff of India's army, navy and air force, Indian Defense Secretary Ajay Kumar, the head of the Indian Defense Ministry's Defence Research and Development Organisation, Satheesh Reddy, and US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster.
"India is delighted to host the US Secretary of Defence, Dr. Mark Esper. Our talks today were fruitful, aimed at further deepening defence cooperation in a wide range of areas. Today's discussions will add new vigour to India-US defence relations & mutual cooperation," Singh said on Twitter.
Sputnik has learned from a source close to the negotiations that the ministers discussed, in particular, paths to "increasing defensive cooperation and intelligence sharing," as well as the cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
Esper is in India together with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as part of the third annual US-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue. Pompeo is scheduled to hold talks with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in the evening.
The two-day talks are expected to cover defense cooperation issues of mutual interest, ranging from information exchange to trade. The ministers are expected to sign a Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA), under which New Delhi and Washington would be sharing with each other satellite imagery of military significance.
India and the United States are members of the so-called QUAD group of countries, together with Australia and Japan, which has the reinforcement of cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region as one of its priorities.
