PTI, New Delhi :
The United States and India must seize opportunities to collaborate more on defense development and not let government red tape and other problems stymie progress between the two nations, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Saturday.
Capping two days of meetings here, Hagel’s speech to New Delhi business leaders and scholars reflected the hopes and frustrations of America’s struggles to forge weapons development agreements with India.
Hagel leaves India with few concrete agreements, acknowledging the two countries – the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest – must be “results oriented” and do more to “transform our nations’ defense cooperation from simply buying and selling to co-production, co-development, and freer exchange of technology.”
In meetings with top Indian government leaders he pressed for broader coordination in new weapons production, including a pilot plan for the two nations to jointly develop a next-generation anti-tank missile. The US is hoping to partner with India as it modernizes its military, but Indian leaders are more interested in co-development opportunities than in simply buying American-made weapons.
