US Says It Aims At Helping India Develop Its Own Defense Industrial Base

The Biden administration is looking at deepening its military and technical cooperation with India by not only providing it with arms and equipment, but also helping New Delhi develop its own defense industrial base, a senior Pentagon official told lawmakers in Washington on Wednesday.

"We are looking to ... deepen our military-technical cooperation with India that is based on providing them arms and equipment so we can build interoperable forces and capabilities and work with India developing its own defense industrial base so that India is able to produce equipment to service their needs and to be able to work with us and others around the region," Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs David Helvey told lawmakers.

India is a real partner, a rising partner of the United States, Helvey said responding to a question from Congressman Doug Lamborn during a Congressional hearing on Indo-Pacific by the House Armed Services Committee. "We have a unique designation with India; it''s called a major defense partner," he said.