<div class="excerpt subheading post_news" id="excerpt">India and the US bolstered their ties during two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a series of initiatives across domains including &#8216;Mission 500&#8217;, major defence partnership and decisions concerning energy trade and civil nuclear cooperation.</div>
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<p>Washington DC [US], February 15 (ANI): India and the US bolstered their ties during two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a series of initiatives across domains including &#8216;Mission 500&#8217;, 10-year framework for major defence partnership and decisions concerning energy trade and civil nuclear cooperation.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Modi launched a new initiative -&#8216;U.S.-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce &; Technology) for the 21st Century&#8217; &#8211; to drive transformative change across key pillars of cooperation.</p>
<p>Under this initiative, they committed to a results-driven agenda with initial outcomes this year to demonstrate the level of trust for a mutually beneficial partnership.</p>
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<p>Highlighting the deepening convergence of U.S.-India strategic interests, the leaders reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to a dynamic defence partnership spanning multiple domains, according to joint statement released after their bilateral meeting.</p>
<p>To further advance defense ties, the leaders announced plans to sign this year a new ten-year Framework for the US-India Major Defense Partnership in the 21st Century.</p>
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<p>The leaders welcomed the significant integration of U.S.-origin defence items into India&#8217;s inventory to date, including C-130J Super Hercules, C-17 Globemaster III, P-8I Poseidon aircraft; CH-47F Chinooks, MH-60R Seahawks, and AH-64E Apaches; Harpoon anti-ship missiles; M777 howitzers; and MQ-9Bs.</p>
<p>The leaders determined that the US would expand defense sales and co-production with India to strengthen interoperability and defense industrial cooperation.</p>
<p>They announced plans to pursue this year new procurements and co-production arrangements for &#8220;Javelin&#8221; Anti-Tank Guided Missiles and &#8220;Stryker&#8221; Infantry Combat Vehicles in India to rapidly meet India&#8217;s defence requirements.</p>
<p>They also expect completion of procurement for six additional P-8I Maritime Patrol aircraft to enhance India&#8217;s maritime surveillance reach in the Indian Ocean Region following agreement on sale terms.</p>
<p>Recognizing that India is a Major Defense Partner with Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) authorization and a key Quad partner, the US and India will review their respective arms transfer regulations, including International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), in order to streamline defence trade, technology exchange and maintenance, spare supplies and in-country repair and overhaul of US-provided defence systems.</p>
<p>The leaders also called for opening negotiations this year for a Reciprocal Defense Procurement (RDP) agreement to better align their procurement systems and enable the reciprocal supply of defence goods and services.</p>
<p>The leaders pledged to accelerate defense technology cooperation across space, air defense, missile, maritime and undersea technologies, with the US announcing a review of its policy on releasing fifth generation fighters and undersea systems to India.</p>
<p>Building on the U.S.-India Roadmap for Defense Industrial Cooperation and recognizing the rising importance of autonomous systems, the leaders announced a new initiative &#8211; the Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance (ASIA) &#8211; to scale industry partnerships and production in the Indo-Pacific.</p>
<p>The leaders welcomed a new partnership between Anduril Industries and Mahindra Group on advanced autonomous technologies to co-develop and co-produce state-of-the-art maritime systems and advanced AI-enabled counter Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) to strengthen regional security, and between L3 Harris and Bharat Electronics for co-development of active towed array systems.</p>
<p>The leaders also pledged to elevate military cooperation across all domains &#8211; air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace &#8211; through enhanced training, exercises, and operations, incorporating the latest technologies. The leaders welcomed the forthcoming &#8220;Tiger Triumph&#8221; tri-service exercise (first inaugurated in 2019) with larger scale and complexity to be hosted in India.</p>
<p>The leaders committed to break new ground to support and sustain the overseas deployments of the U.S. and Indian militaries in the Indo-Pacific, including enhanced logistics and intelligence sharing, as well as arrangements to improve force mobility for joint humanitarian and disaster relief operations along with other exchanges and security cooperation engagements.</p>
<p>The leaders resolved to expand trade and investment to make their citizens more prosperous, nations stronger, economies more innovative and supply chains more resilient. They resolved to deepen the U.S.-India trade relationship to promote growth that ensures fairness, national security and job creation. To this end, the leaders set a bold new goal for bilateral trade &#8211; &#8220;Mission 500&#8221; &#8211; aiming to more than double total bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.</p>
<p>Recognizing that this level of ambition would require new, fair-trade terms, the leaders announced plans to negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025.</p>
<p>The leaders committed to designate senior representatives to advance these negotiations and to ensure that the trade relationship fully reflects the aspirations of the COMPACT.</p>
<p>To advance this innovative, wide-ranging BTA, the U.S. and India will take an integrated approach to strengthen and deepen bilateral trade across the goods and services sector, and will work towards increasing market access, reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers, and deepening supply chain integration.</p>
<p>The leaders welcomed early steps to demonstrate mutual commitment to address bilateral trade barriers.</p>
<p>The United States welcomed India&#8217;s recent measures to lower tariffs on US products of interest in the areas of bourbon, motorcycles, ICT products and metals, as well as measures to enhance market access for US agricultural products, like alfalfa hay and duck meat, and medical devices.</p>
<p>India also expressed appreciation for U.S. measures taken to enhance exports of Indian mangoes and pomegranates to the United States. Both sides also pledged to collaborate to enhance bilateral trade by increasing U.S. exports of industrial goods to India and Indian exports of labour-intensive manufactured products to the United States. The two sides will also work together to increase trade in agricultural goods.</p>
<p>Finally, the leaders committed to drive opportunities for US and Indian companies to make greenfield investments in high-value industries in each other&#8217;s countries. In this regard, the leaders welcomed ongoing investments by Indian companies worth approximately $7.35 billion, such as those by Hindalco&#8217;s Novelis in finished aluminum goods at their state-of-the art facilities in Alabama and Kentucky; JSW in steel manufacturing operations at Texas and Ohio; Epsilon Advanced Materials in the manufacture of critical battery materials in North Carolina; and Jubilant Pharma in the manufacture of injectables in Washington. These investments support over 3,000 high-quality jobs for local families.</p>
<p>Realizing the consequential role of the U.S. and India, as leading producers and consumers, in driving the global energy landscape, the leaders re-committed to the US-India Energy Security Partnership, including in oil, gas, and civil nuclear energy.</p>
<p>The leaders also underscored the value of strategic petroleum reserves to preserve economic stability during crises and resolved to work with key partners to expand strategic oil reserve arrangements. In this context, the U.S. side affirmed its firm support for India to join the International Energy Agency as a full member.</p>
<p>The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to increase energy trade, as part of efforts to ensure energy security, and to establish the United States as a leading supplier of crude oil and petroleum products and liquified natural gas to India, in line with the growing needs and priorities of their dynamic economies.</p>
<p>The leaders announced their commitment to fully realize the U.S.-India 123 Civil Nuclear Agreement by moving forward with plans to work together to build U.S.-designed nuclear reactors in India through large scale localization and possible technology transfer.</p>
<p>Both sides welcomed the recent Budget announcement by Government of India to take up amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA) for nuclear reactors, and further decided to establish bilateral arrangements in accordance with CLNDA, that would address the issue of civil liability and facilitate the collaboration of Indian and U.S. industry in the production and deployment of nuclear reactors. This path forward will unlock plans to build large U.S.-designed reactors and enable collaboration to develop, deploy and scale up nuclear power generation with advanced small modular reactors.</p>
<p>The leaders announced the launch of the U.S.-India TRUST (&#8220;Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology&#8221;) initiative, which will catalyze government-to-government, academia and private sector collaboration to promote application of critical and emerging technologies in areas like defence, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum, biotechnology, energy and space, while encouraging the use of verified technology vendors and ensuring sensitive technologies are protected.</p>
<p>As a central pillar of the &#8220;TRUST&#8221; initiative, the leaders committed to work with U.S. and Indian private industry to put forward a U.S.-India Roadmap on Accelerating AI Infrastructure by the end of the year, identifying constraints to financing, building, powering, and connecting large-scale U.S.-origin AI infrastructure in India with milestones and future actions.</p>
<p>The U.S. and India will work together to enable industry partnerships and investments in next generation data centers, cooperation on development and access to compute and processors for AI, for innovations in AI models and building AI applications for solving societal challenges while addressing the protections and controls necessary to protect these technologies and reduce regulatory barriers, the statement said.</p>
<p>The leaders announced the launch of INDUS Innovation, a new innovation bridge modeled after the successful INDUS-X platform, that will advance US-India industry and academic partnerships and foster investments in space, energy, and other emerging technologies to maintain U.S. and India leadership in innovation and to meet the needs of the 21st century.</p>
<p>The leaders also reinforced their commitment to the INDUS-X initiative, which facilities partnerships between US and Indian defense companies, investors and universities to produce critical capability for militaries of the two countries and welcomed the next summit in 2025.</p>
<p>The leaders also committed, as part of the TRUST initiative, to build trusted and resilient supply chains, including for semiconductors, critical minerals, advanced materials and pharmaceuticals.</p>
<p>As part of this effort, the leaders plan to encourage public and private investments to expand Indian manufacturing capacity, including in the US, for active pharmaceutical ingredients for critical medicines. These investments will create good jobs, diversify vital supply chains, and reduce the risk of life-saving drug shortages in both the United States and India.</p>
<p>Both countries have committed to intensifying efforts to deepen cooperation in the exploration, beneficiation, and processing as well as recycling technologies of critical minerals. To this end, the leaders announced the launch of the Strategic Mineral Recovery initiative, a new U.S.-India program to recover and process critical minerals (including lithium, cobalt, and rare earths) from heavy industries like aluminum, coal mining and oil and gas.</p>
<p>The leaders hailed 2025 as a pioneering year for U.S.-India civil space cooperation, with plans for a NASA-ISRO effort through AXIOM to bring the first Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS), and early launch of the joint &#8220;NISAR&#8221; mission, the first of its kind to systematically map changes to the Earth&#8217;s surface using dual radars.</p>
<p>The leaders called for more collaboration in space exploration, including on long duration human spaceflight missions, spaceflight safety and sharing of expertise and professional exchanges in emerging areas, including planetary protection.</p>
<p>The leaders also resolved to work together to counter the common challenge of unfair practices in export controls by third parties seeking to exploit overconcentration of critical supply chains.</p>
<p>The leaders reaffirmed that a close partnership between the U.S. and India is central to a free, open, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region. As Quad partners, the leaders reiterated that this partnership is underpinned by the recognition of ASEAN centrality; adherence to international law and good governance; support for safety and freedom of navigation, overflight and other lawful uses of the seas; and unimpeded lawful commerce; and advocacy for peaceful resolution of maritime disputes in accordance with international law.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Modi invited President Trump in New Delhi for the Quad leaders&#8217; Summit, ahead of which the leaders will activate new Quad initiatives on shared airlift capacity to support civilian response to natural disasters and maritime patrols to improve interoperability.</p>
<p>The leaders resolved to increase cooperation, enhance diplomatic consultations, and increase tangible collaboration with partners in the Middle East. They highlighted the importance of investing in critical infrastructure and economic corridors to advancing peace and security in the region. The leaders plan to convene partners from the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor and the I2U2 Group within the next six months in order to announce new initiatives in 2025.</p>
<p>The US appreciated India&#8217;s role as a developmental, humanitarian assistance and net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region. In this context, the leaders committed to deepen bilateral dialogue and cooperation across the vast Indian Ocean region and launched the Indian Ocean Strategic Venture, a new bilateral, whole-of-government forum to advance coordinated investments in economic connectivity and commerce.</p>
<p>Supporting greater Indian Ocean connectivity, the leaders also welcomed Meta&#8217;s announcement of a multi-billion, multi-year investment in an undersea cable project that will begin work this year and ultimately stretch over 50,000 km to connect five continents and strengthen global digital highways in the Indian Ocean region and beyond. India intends to invest in maintenance, repair and financing of undersea cables in the Indian Ocean, using trusted vendors.</p>
<p>The leaders recognized the need to build new plurilateral anchor partnerships in the Western Indian Ocean, Middle East, and Indo-Pacific to grow relationships, commerce and cooperation across defense, technology, energy and critical minerals. The leaders expect to announce new partnership initiatives across these sub-regions by fall of 2025.</p>
<p>The leaders also resolved to advance military cooperation in multinational settings to advance global peace and security. The leaders applauded India&#8217;s decision to take on a future leadership role in the Combined Maritime Forces naval task force to help secure sea lanes in the Arabian Sea.</p>
<p>The leaders reaffirmed that the global scourge of terrorism must be fought and terrorist safe havens eliminated from every corner of the world.</p>
<p>They committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups, including Al-Qa&#8217;ida, ISIS, Jaish-e Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in order to prevent heinous acts like the attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 and the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021.</p>
<p>Recognizing a shared desire to bring to justice those who would harm our citizens, the U.S. announced that the extradition to India of Tahawwur Rana has been approved.</p>
<p>The leaders further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, and Pathankot attacks and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks.</p>
<p>The leaders also pledged to work together to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors.</p>
<p>President Trump and Prime Minister Modi noted the importance of advancing the people-to-people ties between the two countries. In this context, they noted that the more than 300,000 strong Indian student community contributes over USD 8 billion annually to the U.S. economy and helped create a number of direct and indirect jobs. They recognized that the talent flow and movement of students, researchers and employees, has mutually benefitted both countries.</p>
<p>Both leaders emphasized that the evolution of the world into a global workplace calls for putting in place innovative, mutually advantageous and secure mobility frameworks. In this regard, the leaders committed to streamlining avenues for legal mobility of students and professionals, and facilitating short-term tourist and business travel, while also aggressively addressing illegal immigration and human trafficking by taking strong action against bad actors, criminal facilitators, and illegal immigration networks to promote mutual security for both countries. (ANI)</p>
<p>(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)</p>
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PM Modi, President Trump boost bilateral ties with ‘Mission 500’, co-production in defence, US-India COMPACT
