U.S.-India Defense Partnership is Now at an All-time High: U.S. Senior Défense Official

Mumbai:  U.S.-India Defense Partnership is functioning at an all-time high said Rear Admiral Michael Baker, Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché at the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi.

Rear Admiral was speaking at a day-long workshop titled “Defense News Conclave: Stories of U.S.-India Defense and Security Partnership,” organized by the U.S. Department of State through the U.S. Consulate General Kolkata and CUTS International

Arguing that the U.S.-India defense partnership is important for establishing peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific Region, the U.S. Senior Defense Official further said that this partnership has various opportunities such as ammunition, aircraft, underwater awareness technology, and cyber security.

He added, that moving ahead, the U.S.-India strategic partnership is following a three prong strategy viz. defense-industrial cooperation, contemporary operational partnership, and future emerging domain for investment and partnership.

According to Rear Admiral Baker, mentioned that during June, 2023 Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin endorsed a new roadmap for defense Industrial cooperation between the two countries. The framework of the roadmap can be found online. The core of the plan is to partner together to accelerate and deepen integration between Defense Industrial sectors.

Vice Admiral Girish Luthra (Retd.), former Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command mentioned that the U.S.-India Defense Partnership is a broad-based, multisectoral, and multidomain partnership. He informed that there are three pillars of the U.S.-India comprehensive strategic partnership – working together on local and global issues in the Indo-Pacific; cooperation among armed forces of the two countries; and the defense technology, defense trade, and equipment systems.

Delivering the Opening Remarks, Greg Pardo, Spokesperson, U.S. Consulate General Mumbai said US considers India as a key partner in the Indo-Pacific and India and vice versa. Therefore, he underlined the need to take advantage of the momentum built on this synergy and strengthen bilateral ties encompassing people to people ties, and industrial & academic collaborations.

The workshop was spread across two sessions viz—U.S.-India Cooperation in Next Level Warfare and the Significance of U.S.-India Naval Collaboration. It informed the participants that the bilateral defense relationship between the United States and India is robust and continues to grow.

The first session underlined the significance of the U.S.-India defense partnership for 21st-century modern warfare including understanding the dimensions of Hybrid warfare as a subset of statecraft that uses the diplomacy, information, military, and economic elements (DIME).

Lt. Gen. Subrata Saha (Retd.), Former Deputy Chief of Army Staff said today we are moving into an era of maneuvers of technology over maneuver of forces in future wars. Grey Zone warfare and non-contact warfare are witnessing an explosion of innovative exploitation of dual-use technologies.

Lt. Gen. Sanjay Verma (Retd.), Former Director General Weapons and Equipment, Ministry of Defense and Consultant, DRDO held that the Indian private industry is thriving now and we are shifting gears in innovation. India is driving force is software and this will help both (US and India) to strengthen this cooperation.

Discussions in the second session highlighted India’s National Security Apparatus including Maritime Security on the Eastern Coast of Africa, and Arabian Sea, and the Strategic Defense Partnership in the Indo-Pacific Region.

KP Vijayalakshmi, Professor & Head, Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal University pointed out that interdependence and interconnectedness is the bedrock of US-India naval collaboration. The naval collaboration between the US and Indian navy is the best thing.

Cmde. Srikant B Kesnur (Retd.), Former Director of the Maritime Warfare Center in Mumbai said that there are some areas of greater maritime cooperation between India and the U.S. One is the agreement and exchanges, another one is operational interaction and this is the area where deliverables have become the deliveries.

Among other distinguished speakers at Dialogues on “Deliverables to Deliveries” were Cmde. Mukesh Bharagava (Retd.), Deputy Chairman, Defense & Aerospace Committee, FICCI Gujarat and Senior Advisor, Defense & Aerospace Committee, CM Madhya Pradesh; Capt. Nikunj Parashar (Retd.), Founder, Sagar Defense Engineering Pvt. Ltd; Shrikant Paranjpe, Honorary Adjunct Professor, Department of Defense and Strategic Studies, Savitribai Phule Pune University; Alaric Diniz, Partner, Aerospace & Defense, Deloitte, India; Sandhya Sharma, Editor, Technology Policy and Foreign Policy, ET Prime and Rahesha Sehgal, Anchor, WION News.

More than 60 representatives from the media, think tanks, and defense experts, defense industry leaders and civil society participated in the hybrid event hosted in Mumbai.

With its headquarters in Jaipur, India, CUTS International has regional centres in Accra, Lusaka and Nairobi covering West, Southern and East Africa. Besides them, it has centres in Hanoi, Geneva and Washington DC. In India, it has a regional centre in Kolkata, a rural development centre in Chittorgarh and a liaison office in New Delhi.