Topic: defence deals

The US State Department last week approved a potential sale of arms to India, including air-defence radars and missiles, rifles and other equipment.

Modi and Trump will discuss issues where there is a greater convergence between India and the US, like defence, Indo-Pacific, and Afghanistan.

The VISHORADS deal had run into trouble with two competitors officially registering complaints against the trails which gave Russians the heads up.

Washington: The US is keen to make its defence partnership with India stronger, the Pentagon has said, but made it clear that it is against any country purchasing military equipment, including the S-400 missile defence system from Russia, that is designed to counter America's sophisticated fifth-generation aircraft. The remarks by a top Pentagon official came in response to a question on India going ahead with its decision to purchase the S-400 missile defence system from Russia. India inked an agreement with Russia last October to procure a batch of the S-400 missile systems at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore. "Our defence partnership with India I think is strong and we're looking to make it ever stronger," David J Trachtenberg, the deputy under secretary of defence for policy, told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday. When asked if the US can have a major defence partnership with India, which is going ahead...

US Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs R. Clarke Cooper is coming to India with the sole agenda of pushing the defence deal.

A joint statement also referred to terrorist attacks on Pathankot and Uri, and asked Pakistan to crackdown on terrorism in its territory.

The signing of COMCASA effectively nudges India towards an ‘Asian Nato’ in a quadrilateral grouping along with Japan and Australia.

For far too long, successive governments have used the veil of secrecy to block information on defence spending and acquisition.

The current debate on the Rafale deal seems to be going the way of a petty slugfest.

Lack of expertise, research and interest among parliamentarians, existence of lobbies, political opportunism have led to the current impasse in defence deals.