WASHINGTON: India and the US unveiled an ambitious plan to ink a new 10-year defence partnership and pursue co-production of key weapons and platforms with President Donald Trump announcing that Washington would increase sales of military hardware to New Delhi by millions of dollars including possible supply of F-35 stealth combat jets.
After their wide-ranging talks at the White House on Thursday (Friday India time), Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump vowed to break “new ground” to support and sustain overseas deployments of the US and Indian militaries in the Indo-Pacific, including for enhancing logistics and intelligence sharing.
India’s proposed procurement of six additional P-8I long-range maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare from the US was officially confirmed. The Indian Navy already operates 11 P-8I aircraft.
