Besides defence, the two countries have also decided to strengthen cooperation in security, with an emphasis on cyber security.
New Delhi: India and Sweden seem to have finally buried the ghost of Bofors with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country this week – the first by a head of government in three decades – concluding with an agreement to focus on defence ties and security cooperation, among others.
The Bofors scandal, which hung like an albatross around the neck of successive governments in New Delhi since 1987, had soured the relationship between India and Sweden. But ties have slowly come back on track in recent years, so much so that Swedish arms company Saab is now a formidable player in the Indian defence market.
Modi, in his speech in Stockholm Tuesday, said the two countries were aiming for a “win-win” partnership. He also lauded the countries’ past partnership in defence, expressing confidence that new opportunities in defence production would be created in the future.
“Sweden has been India’s partner for a long time in the defence sector, and I believe that in the future, in this area, especially in defence production, many new opportunities will be created for our cooperation,” the PM said.
Modi added that India and Sweden have also decided to strengthen cooperation in security, with an emphasis on cyber security. Details of the bilateral cooperation in the defence sector also find mention in the ‘Sweden India Joint Action Plan’ statement drafted during the visit.
The two countries have agreed to mutually protect and exchange classified information in defence, and encourage industry partners to develop supply chains for small and medium enterprises (SME), with major defence and aerospace original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). This would enable transfer of sensitive technical knowhow from the Nordic nation to India in the future.
“(We plan to) enhance Indo-Swedish dialogue on defence cooperation; proceed with India-Sweden defence seminars in India and Sweden in 2018-19 and explore opportunities for investment in defence production corridors in India,” the joint statement said.
Sweden’s presence in Indian defence
Saab had earlier partnered with the Adani Group to compete for one of the biggest Make in India plans in the defence sector — manufacture of the Gripen multirole fighter aircrafts in India, a deal estimated to be worth over $15 billion.
Saab was also part of an earlier programme to procure medium multi-role combat aircrafts, but this deal was scrapped after a 10-year bidding process as the Modi government opted instead to strike a government-to-government deal with France to acquire 36 Rafale jets in fly-away condition from Dassault Aviation.
A fresh process has now started to identify new aircraft that would be made in India. Saab will be competing for this order of 110 new fighter jets.
Does Adani have brains to make sophisticated arms and weaponry? I thought he had money, but shouldn’t he stick to pickle and papads and khakras and fafdas?
While on 9 March , 2018 , US President Trump has accepted offer to meet Kim Jong Un to find a solution to key issues which could keep war away , Sweden offered few days earlier to that date to assist Trump in the talks as Sweden has diplomatic relations with North Korea for several years past. This is obviously an opportunity also for Sweden to come closer to the US for probable partnership in economy or any other relationship which could be strategic as well. It may be apt to bring in here the news report which said that Sweden has so far no formal partnership dealings with the US. So the development could be perceived as an opportunity for Sweden. Later news reports also said that North Korea Foreign Minister was in Sweden on 15 March 2018 amid planning for Trump-Kim meeting . Some days later on 16 April 2018 , India’s PM Narendar Modi is visiting Sweden probably for exploring partnership or trade. In the context of these developments in relation to Sweden , it may be appropriate to know this Vedic astrology writer’s related prediction for Sweden made last year in October , 2017 through brief prediction titled as : “ 2018 – an opportune year for Sweden when economy could be better fed by arts , films , entertainment and PARTNERSHIP”. In substance , the year 2018 , more so March to mid-July , was predicted to be providing opportunity to Sweden of partnership in trade or commerce and economy which may have prospect of bringing , sooner or later, chances of boosting up trade and economy. The prediction was emailed by this writer to a large number of newspapers of Sweden and elsewhere last year in October , 2017.