"In fact four (US and India Foreign Ministers and Defence Ministers) of them, had a very frank and in-depth discussion covering the bilateral relationship in a comprehensive fashion," says India's Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane.
He also said, "In a sense, the defence cooperation has become a rock-solid support to the bilateral relations between the two countries. The potential collaboration in emerging domains for the civilian commercial use as well as for the strategic use also was a topic of common interest".
"How the defence industries can intersect each other's interests and promote each other in this particular context of strong bilateral ties was also a matter of great focus. Our extensive engagement has yielded important results. This meeting will contribute to giving a momentum to the defence industry roadmap which was recently finalised," he said.
"We have a common vision of free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific and a rules-based global order throughout the seas in this world. Our partnership is of critical importance to peace and stability in our immediate neighbourhood but also in other regions connected to us."
Foreign Secretary, Vinay Kwatra said:
"The meetings today (Nov 10) and the atmospherics surrounding the meeting were all indicative of the enduring commitment of the bilateral partnership but equally importantly our desire to work together to expand this partnership further and to deepen it more.
"You are all aware of the intensity of the diplomatic engagement between India and the United States in recent years including this year in particular. We have had two very highly successful Heads of State at the government visit.
Honourable Prime Minister had a historical visit to the US in June this year and most recently we had the honour of welcoming President Biden on a successful visit to India on the occasion of the G20 summit.
The collective outcomes of Honourable Prime Minister's visit to the US and President Biden's visit to India have really given us a strong leadership driven momentum to bolster, to strengthen, to expand this relationship much further."
"In today's 2+2 discussions, the principles on both sides, Honourable Raksha Mantri ji, External Affairs Minister on the Indian side, Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence on the US side, undertook a comprehensive review of our bilateral relations," Kwatra said.
On Israel-Hamas episode, Foreign Secretary said answering questions from the media:
"....among the regional developments, the three set of things which came up for discussion, it included, of course, the developments in the Middle East. Both sides shared their perspective of how, of their concern, how they look at the situation, where various elements of the developing situation, et cetera. Our position, India's position on this, is well known to you.
"It also came up in discussion, and I think certain elements of how both sides look at the situation come. From India's perspective, we have always stood for a two-state solution, early resumptions of dialogue. You are also aware of, very early on, when the current hostilities started, India put out a tweet condemning the horrific terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7.
We have always advocated zero tolerance for terrorism."
Vinay Kwatra also said, "Besides, there is also the angle of humanitarian assistance in the given situation. You are aware that India has already sent about 38 tons of humanitarian assistance to the region to address this, the humanitarian situation which is there. We have asked for strict observance of international humanitarian law, de-escalation of the situation, and, of course, also condemned the civilian casualties where they have occurred.
The sharing of perspective between the principles was built around these parameters in the discussions."
Answering questions on procurement from the US, Defence Secretary said,
"....we have a very thriving defence cooperation between the two countries. While the purchases have been going for quite some time, co-development and co-production have been the focus during last few years. Under that, as you know, during Prime Minister's visit to the U.S., the F 414 was agreed to by the U.S. government.
Under that, we are finalizing the commercial arrangement and the necessary legal requirements are being put in place. So this is on track. It will happen as was originally scheduled.
Regarding the MQ-9B HAIL i.e high altitude long endurance, we have some understanding. We have given our request, letter of request has gone there and they have to respond.
The US company has to take clearance from their government and come back to us. Meanwhile, we have necessary capability to take care of our immediate threats.
Regarding the infantry combat vehicle, this is a part of the defence industry cooperation roadmap between the two countries. The provision under this roadmap is to co-develop and co-produce machinery, equipment, weapons required by the two countries. So any cooperation in this sector will happen when Indian military's needs are finalised specifically and then they arrive at a production plan.
So the initial offer on several infantry combat vehicle systems has come from US. We have expressed our interest in discussing further to take the co-development and co-production part ahead. So this will take some time, we will work, our teams will work".
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