Hyderabad: For a free, open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific region

Hyderabad: To facilitate dialogue between experts and participants for the relevance of the US-India Defence and Security Partnership, the US Consulate General Kolkata, the US Department of State, and CUTS International (a leading public body) organised a day-long workshop titled ‘Dialogues on “Deliverables to Deliveries” in the city on Friday. The workshop was spread across two sessions that focused on disseminating a better understanding of good practices between the USA and India in the joint development of advanced defence-related technologies, especially in the context of evolving geopolitical, including geo-strategic and geo-economic developments in the Indo-Pacific region.

In her opening remarks during the day-long session, Jennifer Larson, Consul General, US Consulate, Hyderabad, said, “A few areas of US-India relations have seen as much recent progress as the defence relationship. Over the last two decades, the US has become a significant supplier of defence equipment to India and has become India’s largest military exercise partner.” She added that “the bilateral defence trade with India has grown exponentially year-over-year. We were at essentially zero in 2008, and that number has grown to reach almost US $25 billion by the end of 2023.”

Consul General Larson stated that several US aerospace companies have established partnerships with Indian counterparts, facilitating technology transfer and enhancing indigenous defence production capabilities in India, including several taking place in Hyderabad. “Together, both nations have taken steps to improve inter-operability and coordination and signed technical agreements to further expand India’s access to high-end American defence technology.”

Addressing distinguished panellists and workshop participants, the Consul General also discussed the increase in joint US-India military exercises and cooperation, “including those involving the US and Indian Navies held at Visakhapatnam, the headquarters of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Command. Joint service exercises like Tiger Triumph are important as they help our navies work effectively, side-by-side, in providing disaster relief for communities devastated by tsunamis, earthquakes, and floods across the region.”

The day-long workshop also focused on the joint exploration and opportunities in high-tech defence innovation, cyber and industrial collaboration, the Security of Supply Agreement (SOSA), the assessment of threat perceptions, and regional trends.

As the Indo-Pacific region will be a deciding factor in this relationship, the workshop dwelt upon the global strategic cooperation and interoperability between the navies of India and the USA in crucial geostrategic domains and the potential collaboration between them in the Indian Ocean.