India, US to set-up joint working group in defence industrial security

New Delhi, Oct 1: In a huge boost to bilateral defence cooperation, India and the United States have agreed to set up a joint working group to align the "policies and procedures" to facilitate the industries to collaborate on cutting-edge defence technologies.

 

 

The two sides agreed to the setting up of the joint working group during the Industrial Security Agreement (ISA) summit between India and the United States. The summit was held between 27 September to 1 October in New Delhi. According to a Defence Ministry release, the summit was organized to develop a protocol for the exchange of classified information between the defence industries of both nations. 

 

 

The summit was led by Designated Security Authorities (DSAs) namely Anurag Bajpai and Mr David Paul Bagnati from Indian and US sides respectively, the ministry said in the release on Friday (1 October). The ISA was signed in December 2019 to facilitate the exchange of classified information between the defence industries of both the countries, the ministry said.

 

 

The summit was held to create a roadmap for the implementation of the ISA. "During the summit, both the sides agreed in-principle to establish the Indo-US Industrial Security Joint Working Group," it said. The ministry said that the group will meet periodically to "align the policies and procedures expeditiously that will allow the defence industries to collaborate on cutting edge defence technologies".