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India-US ties get fillip as Hagel meets Modi
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SME Times News Bureau | 09 Aug, 2014
Defence and strategic cooperation between India and the US got a major
boost Friday as visiting US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders and discussed new ways
to take forward the ties.
Hagel, who arrived here Thursday
evening, met Modi Friday afternoon and discussed the prime minister's
"forward-looking agenda" for the summit talks with US President Barack
Obama in Washington as well as new ways to deepen strategic ties.
Hagel's
maiden trip to India as defense secretary comes less than a week after
that of Secretary of State John Kerry and Commerce Secretary Penny
Pritzeker.
The visits by the three senior US officials in quick
succession lays the ground for the summit meeting in Washington between
Modi and Obama Sep 29-30.
The US visit by Modi, whose Bharatiya
Janata Party stormed to power in the April-May elections, is being
looked forward to by the US, especially since Washington had denied him a
visa following the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi was chief minister of
Gujarat.
Kerry had come to New Delhi last week to co-chair the
India-US Strategic Dialogue, though it was India's turn to go to
Washington for the annual dialogue.
Hagel met External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj Friday morning, and Defence and Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley later in the day.
Modi told Hagel he looked forward
to his visit to the US in September which would provide "an opportunity
to see how the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest
democracy can build a partnership for peace, stability and prosperity in
the world".
In their talks on defence cooperation, both Modi and
Jaitley raised the issue of enhancing indigenous defence production, a
point the prime minister stressed.
Modi indicated his desire to
see further progress in defence relations, including in defence
manufacturing in India, technology transfer in the area of defence,
exercises and higher studies in the field of defence.
Both sides
discussed Afghanistan and the situation in the Middle East. On Iraq,
Hagel briefed Modi on the "announcements by President Obama on the
steps that the US plans to take to deal with the situation," an official
statement said.
After initially refusing to get involved in
Iraq, where Sunni jihadists have overrun large swathes of land, the US
military has launched targeted airstrikes on forces of the Islamic
State.
Modi raised the Afghanistan political situation where the
dispute between the two presidential candidates on the veracity of the
election has caused concern.
Kerry reached Kabul unannounced Thursday in an attempt to try and resolve the dispute over the presidential elecitons.
Hagel was accorded a ceremonial reception at South Block by the three services.
Ahead
of his visit, the Indian cabinet had approved a proposal to raise
foreign direct investment (FDI) in the defence sector to 49 percent
from the present 26 percent.
During talks with Jaitley, the two
sides decided to take steps for a new defence agreement to replace the
10-year defence framework agreement that expires next year and also
agreed to take the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative forward.
Both
sides discussed their bilateral defence ties and agreed to "further
enhance bilateral defence cooperation, especially in technology and
discussed ways for strengthening this partnership".
Jaitley stressed on indigenisation of the Indian defence industries.
Hagel also met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
While
flying to India, Hagel told reporters enroute: "(The) point of my trip
here is to take advantage of the opportunity to meet with a new Indian
government."
"I'm here to pursue different possibilities and
options that have been initiated over the years. We have a number of
things, specific projects that we will discuss. One is the renewal of
the 10-year defense framework agreement," he told reporters accompanying
him on the visit.
The US defense secretary also described India
as one of the most significant countries in the world and would help
shape a "new world order" that is emerging in this century.
"The
relationship between the US and India certainly for our interests, for
the US' interests, and I think for India's interests, as well as the
Asia Pacific, but also global interests, is important.
"And where
we can find common interests, where we can share areas that help
promote our own countries', our own economies' stability, security,
peace, trade, technology, then we need to take that initiative and we
need to do that," he said.
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