UK offers tech transfer to India for weapons production

Aims to jointly become 'world beaters' in arms exports

Britain on Wednesday offered technology transfer to India for co-production of military platforms and weapon systems to jointly become "world beaters" in arms exports.

Britain's Defence Secretary Michael Fallon also called for strengthening cooperation between the two countries to effectively deal with terrorism and extremism, calling them a major challenge facing the globe.

The British Defence Secretary is on a four-day visit to India aimed at enhancing security and defence ties.

During an interactive session at a leading think-tank on UK-India strategic ties, he referred to a spate of recent terror attacks including in London, St Petersburg and Egypt and said both India and the UK will have to work harder to deal with the menace.

"No country is immune from terrorism. India and the UK need to work hard to combat it," he said, particularly emphasising on boosting cyber security cooperation to protect youths from radicalism and extremism.

Fallon refused to respond to a question on death sentence given to Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistani military court.

On Indo-UK defence production, he said with innovation and collaboration, Britain and India can prove to be "world beaters".

"We are looking at the government-to-government framework for the transfer of technology," he said, on technology transfer to India in defence manufacturing.

The British Defence Secretary also gave a run down of reform measures taken by his country in the defence sector and said a partnership with India will provide an unprecedented opportunity to match the British experience with Indian brainpower.

As per statistics collated by UK Trade and Investment, the country is the second biggest arms exporter in the world after the US. It said UK has sold more arms than Russia, China and France on average over the last 10 years.

Britain has been a leading supplier of military platforms to India as well.

Fallon will hold talks with Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday on enhancing security ties and deepening cooperation in combating terrorism and extremism.