US-Indian defense ties are strong: Prior to the “2+2” conversation, a former US defense official

According to a former senior US defense official, the US-Indian defense partnership is on a “great track” and the “2+2” foreign and defense ministerial conversation is a prime example of the significance both parties have put on expanding it.

During the next “2+2” foreign and defense ministers talks, which takes place here on Friday, India and the US will conduct a thorough assessment of their rapidly developing strategic ties.

As a prelude to the “2+2” Indo-US Ministerial Dialogue, Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), a division of the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, and the US Department of Defense, hosted the first INDUS-X Investors Meet here on Wednesday.

In an interview with PTI outside of this meeting, Joseph H. Felter, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, said, “There is no more important relationship anywhere than the US-India relationship.” Furthermore, the defense ties have long been a major factor in the development of the overall US-Indian relationship.

“We moved from having no defense commerce in 2008 to over $20 billion now since 2016, when India was named a key defense partner. Thus, the defense cooperation between the US and India is really progressing well, and this “2+2” is a wonderful illustration of the significance and priority that both of our countries have put on that, he said on Wednesday.

For the conversation, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are in India. Rajnath Singh, the minister of defense, and S Jaishankar, the minister of external affairs, will head the Indian mission.

The INDUS-X Educational Series (Gurukul) was also introduced during the Wednesday event. The delegations from the US and India were headed by Doug Beck, Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), US Department of Defense, and Vivek Virmani, COO, iDEX-DIO, Ministry of Defence.

The government developed the Innovations for military Excellence (iDEX) framework to encourage self-reliance and innovation and technology development in the military and aerospace sectors by involving various industries such as MSMEs, start-ups, individual innovators, R&D institutions, and academia.

Speaking to PTI outside the event, Virmani said, “First and foremost, the goal of iDEX is to link our start-ups and MSMEs, which make up the majority of our industry, with the military and help them take solutions from the start-ups and the MSMEs, which are innovative, and can help them in solving their problems, and helping the county become self-reliant in the long run.”

In light of this, we have already engaged with several startups over the last five years and have inked almost 300 iDEX agreements. According to him, the purpose of IDEX agreements is to provide startups with subsidies to assist them in developing goods that the Services need.

According to Virmani, the Indian defense sector has benefited greatly from these partnerships since a number of instances have resulted in purchase orders from the Services.

According to him, this has given the iDEX brand “a lot of credibility” and convinced individuals and startups that there can be “shorter turnaround time and faster return on investment in defense also.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to the US earlier this year was timed with the inaugural INDUS-X. He claimed that INDUS-X was included in the joint declaration made during the visit.

Once again, INDUS X and iDEX were mentioned in the joint statement at the G20 after the US President had arrived. Therefore, Virmani said, “it is only reasonable that there would be some debate or reference of iDEX and INDUS-X in “2+2.”

The defence ministry released a statement announcing the launch of the India-US Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) in June 2023, coinciding with PM Modi’s State Visit to the US. The initiative aims to increase strategic technology partnerships and defence industrial cooperation between Indian and US governments, businesses, and academic institutions.

According to the statement, INDUS X will serve as a bridge for defense innovation and will include a number of initiatives, including collaborative challenges, a joint innovation fund, university involvement, industry-startup connections, private sector investment in defense projects, expert mentorship, and specialized technology projects.