The US has discussed a potential missile defence collaboration with India, a top Pentagon official has said, underlining that America wants to build a \u201cmuch deeper and broader relationship\u201d with the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under secretary of defence for policy John Rood, however, said that it is early to determine how far India, which already has substantial domestic missile defence capabilities, will go regarding the defence collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have talked to the Indians about missile defence as potentially an area as well to collaborate on. It\u2019s early days to determine how far that will go,\u201d Rood said speaking at a think-tank here on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Indians have substantial capabilities domestically of their own and they\u2019ve done some development of missile defences. So the degree to which they\u2019re interested in acquiring or working collaboratively with us in the US remains to be seen,\u201d Rood said when asked about reports that India is interested in purchasing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system popular as THAAD from the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The previous Obama administration was not very forthcoming in sharing its advance missile defense system with India, following which New Delhi went ahead to procure it from Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd if that isn\u2019t one of the areas they choose to go in, there\u2019s quite a bit of other meaty areas that we can pursue. Maybe I should have chosen a term rather than meaty, quite a few Indians are vegetarian as you know,\u201d Rood said jokingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have had excellent meetings and we\u2019re expanding our agenda. There\u2019s more meat to it, if you will. So I\u2019m really feeling very good about the overall trajectory of that relationship,\u201d said Rood who has been personally involved through successive administrations in building India-US relationship: in both the Bush administration, the Obama administration, and now in the present Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, the Trump administration now seems to be more than inclined to let India procure its missile defense system with talks between the two countries having already started Making an appearance before the prestigious Hudson Institute think-tank, Rood said the US is certainly open to this kind of collaboration with India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US has also agreed to sell two advanced missile defence systems to India for two Boeing-777 Head-of-State aircraft for an estimated cost of USD 190 million, a decision that will enhance the security of the planes flying the president and the prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US is the second-largest arms supplier to India. It has already recognised India as a \u201cmajor defence partner\u201d, a status that which commits the US to facilitate technology sharing with India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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