India strengthens defence cooperation with US; nod to deals for advanced helicopters

India and the US on Tuesday further strengthened their defence cooperation with the two countries giving a nod to an agreement under which India will get USD 3 billion of advanced military equipment including Apache and MH-60 Romeo helicopters.

US President Donald Trump made the announcement after delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

"Earlier today we expanded our defence cooperation with agreements for India to purchase more than USD $ 3 billion of advanced American military equipment, including Apache and MH-60 Romeo Helicopters - finest in the world. These will enhance our joint defence capabilities," he said.

The Prime Minister also spoke of growing defence cooperation between the two countries.

He said that increasing defence and security cooperation between India and the US was a very important part of the strategic partnership.

"India's defence capacity has increased through collaboration on state-of-the-art defence equipment and platforms. Our defence manufacturers are becoming part of each other's supply chains. Indian forces are doing most training exercises today with the forces of USA. In the last few years, there has been an unprecedented increase in interoperability between our forces," Modi said.

A day earlier, during his address at "Namaste Trump" event in Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, the US President had announced that the two countries would sign agreement in defence sector.

"I am pleased to announce that tomorrow our representatives will sign deals to sell over USD 3 billion, in the absolute finest state of the art military helicopters and other equipment to the Indian armed forces," Trump had said.

"As we continue to build our defence cooperation, the US looks forward to providing India with some of the best and most feared military equipment on the planet. We make the greatest weapons ever made. We make the best and we are dealing now with India. But this includes advanced air defence systems and armed and unarmed aerial vehicles," the US President had told the gathering.

The last few years have seen the two countries concluding military agreements such as LEMOA, COMCASA to increase interoperability between militaries of two countries.

The Indian military has bought a significant chunk of its military hardware from the US in the last few years.

These include P-8I surveillance planes, Apache attack choppers and Chinook transport choppers.