United States Secretary of Defence Dr. Mark T. Esper and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had a bilateral meeting in South Block, New Delhi as part of the 2+2 Ministerial Meeting.
The two ministers reviewed bilateral defence cooperation spanning military to military cooperation, secure communication systems and information sharing, defence trade and industrial issues and also discussed ways to take bilateral cooperation forward.
Both the Ministers expressed satisfaction at the close engagements between the respective Armed Forces. They discussed potential new areas of cooperation, both at Service to Service level and at the joint level. They called for continuation of existing defence dialogue mechanisms during the pandemic, at all levels, particularly the Military Cooperation Group (MCG). They also discussed requirements of expanding deployments of liaison officers.
US Secretary of Defence welcomed Australia’s participation in the exercise MALABAR 2020. Defence Minister elaborated upon the initiatives under the ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT to encourage investments in the defence industry in India and invited US companies to make avail of the liberalized policies and the favourable Defence Industry ecosystem in India.
