India, US agree to deepen cooperation on defence, fight against terrorism

India and the United States on Wednesday agreed to deepen their bilateral cooperation, increase defence trade, intensify their coordination with like-minded countries like Japan for a peaceful Indo-Pacific region and put up a decisive fight against terrorism.

The second 2+2 India US ministerial dialogue here chalked out a pathway to take the bilateral relationship between the two countries in 2020 to a new level as they inked a number of agreements ranging from greater interaction between elected representatives, industrial security annex (ISA), to collaboration in space, science and water, people to people exchange.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper hosted their Indian counterparts External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh for the dialogue at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

"Today's dialogue built on steady progress over this past year. We secured new agreements on space exploration, defence and industrial collaboration," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters after the conclusion of the 2+2 dialogue.

"We agreed to establish a new exchange programme for legislators from our two countries. We launch new initiatives to help secure internships for innovators in each of our two countries and we are excited to support India's coalition for disaster resilient infrastructure," Pompeo added.

Pompeo was joined by Singh, Jaishankar and Esper at the joint news conference.

"Today we had a good lively and productive exchange of views on significant regional challenges. We value India's perspective on security in the Indo-Pacific and frankly all around the world," Pompeo said.

The US Secretary of State further said,"The future of Afghanistan matters to each of our two nations, and we are working together toward a more secure, prosperous peaceful future for the Afghan people and we appreciate India's contributions to Afghanistan and intend to continue consulting closely on that matter."
Describing the 2+2 meeting "meaningful and successful in maintaining the momentum" of the India-US relationship, Singh said the signing of the industrial security annex before the 2+2 dialogue will enable a smooth transfer of classified technology and information, between private entities of the US and India. '