President Biden welcomes progress on India's procurement of MQ-9B aircraft; lauds effort to advance cooperation in space, cyber

Wilmington (Delaware) [India], September 22 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden, during their bilateral meeting in Delaware, recognized the 'remarkable progress' made under the US-India Defense Industrial Cooperation Roadmap.
The two leaders welcomed the ongoing efforts to deepen India-US military partnership and interoperability to maintain a "free and open Indo-Pacific."
PM Modi and President Biden also commended the work for advancing cooperation in advanced domains, including space and cyber.
President Biden welcomed the progress towards India concluding procurement of 31 General Atomics MQ-9B (16 Sky Guardian and 15 Sea Guardian) remotely piloted aircraft and their associated equipment, which will enhance the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities of India's armed forces across all domains.
"The Leaders recognized the remarkable progress under the US-India Defense Industrial Cooperation Roadmap, including ongoing collaboration to advance priority co-production arrangements for jet engines, munitions, and ground mobility systems," the Joint Fact Sheet released by the White House read.
The bilateral meet was held on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders' Summit. In a special gesture, President Biden hosted the meeting with PM Modi at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
The US delegation comprised of Antony Blinken, Secretary of State; Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; and Eric Garcetti, Ambassador of the United States to India. The Indian delegation consisted of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Ambassador of India to US Vinay Mohan Kwatra and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.
They also welcomed efforts to expand defence industrial partnerships, including the teaming of Liquid Robotics and Sagar Defence Engineering for the co-development and co-production of unmanned surface vehicle systems that strengthen undersea and maritime domain awareness.
The leaders applauded the recent conclusion of the Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA), enhancing the mutual supply of defense goods and services. Both Leaders committed to advance ongoing discussions on aligning their respective defense procurement systems to further enable the reciprocal supply of defense goods and services.
"President Biden also welcomed India's decision to set a uniform Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 5 percent on the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) sector, including on all aircraft and aircraft engine parts thereby simplifying the tax structure and paving the way for building a strong ecosystem for MRO services in India," the statement added.
The leaders also encouraged the defence industry to foster collaboration and drive innovation to support India's efforts to become a leading aviation hub. The leaders welcomed commitments from US industry to further increase India's MRO capabilities, including for the repair of aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
PM Modi and President Biden hailed the teaming agreement on the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft recently signed between Lockheed Martin and Tata Advanced Systems Limited, the two companies that co-chair the US-India CEO Forum.
"Building on longstanding industry cooperation, this agreement will establish a new Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in India to support the readiness of the Indian fleet and global partners who operate the C-130 Super Hercules aircraft. This marks a significant step in U.S.-India defence and aerospace cooperation and reflects the two sides' deepening strategic and technology partnership ties," the joint fact sheet read.
The leaders lauded the growing defence innovation collaboration between India and US governments, businesses, and academic institutions fostered by the India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) initiative launched in 2023, and noted progress achieved during the third INDUS-X Summit in Silicon Valley earlier this month.
They also welcomed the enhanced collaboration between the Indian Ministry of Defence's Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) and US Department of Defence's Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) through the Memorandum of Understanding signed at the Silicon Valley Summit. The efforts via the INDUSWERX consortium to facilitate pathways for defence and dual-use companies in the INDUS-X network to access premier testing ranges in both countries, were appreciated.
PM Modi and President Biden welcomed the ongoing efforts to deepen India-US military partnership and interoperability to maintain a "free and open Indo-Pacific." They also noted that that India hosted their "most complex, largest bilateral, tri-service exercise to date" during the March 2024 TIGER TRIUMPH exercise.
They also welcomed the inclusion of new technologies and capabilities, including a first-ever demonstration of the Javelin and Stryker systems in India, on the margins of the ongoing bilateral Army YUDH ABHYAS exercise.
The Leaders commended the work to advance cooperation in advanced domains, including space and cyber, and looked forward towards the November 2024 bilateral cyber engagement to enhance the US-India cyber cooperation framework. Areas of new cooperation will include threat information sharing, cybersecurity training, and collaboration on vulnerability mitigation in energy and telecommunications networks.
The Leaders also noted the second US-India Advanced Domains Defence Dialogue in May 2024, which included the first-ever bilateral defence space table-top exercise.