US-India’s INDUS-X Defence Initiative Celebrates Its First Anniversary

The India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem has advanced the two strategic partners’ commitment to create a defence innovation bridge under the Critical and Emerging Technology Initiative, the US announced on the partnership’s first anniversary.

The US Department of Defence and the Indian Ministry of Defence inaugurated INDUS-X, which stands for improved strategic and defence collaboration between India and the United States, on June 21 of last year during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington, DC.

In a statement, the Department of Defence said, “In its first year, INDUS-X has advanced both countries’ commitment to build a defence innovation bridge under the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET)”.

On the sidelines of the QUAD summit in Tokyo on May 24, 2022, Prime Minister Modi and US President Joe Biden announced the iCET.

“INDUS-X has strengthened private sector cooperation between the United States and India by facilitating partnerships among defence technology companies, investors, and researchers”, the statement read.

According to a recent announcement by the White House, the third INDUS-X Summit will be held in Silicon Valley in September 2024, with an emphasis on leveraging private funding for defence innovation.

The Summit will be co-hosted by Stanford University and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF).

In recent years, India-US defence and strategic ties have improved significantly.

Over the last few years, the two nations have signed major defence and security agreements, notably the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016, which allows their militaries to use each other’s facilities for supply repair and replenishment.

In 2018, the two sides also signed COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement), which allows for interoperability between the two forces as well as the export of advanced technologies from the United States to India.

In October 2020, India and the United States signed the BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement) to strengthen bilateral defence ties. The agreement calls for the sharing of advanced military technologies, logistics, and geospatial mapping between the two countries.

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