India, US call for space collaboration, launch new innovation bridge

Calling for ramping up collaboration in space exploration, including on long-duration human spaceflight missions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump hailed 2025 as a pioneering year for US-India civil space cooperation.

The two leaders, who also launched INDUS Innovation bridge, held wide-ranging talks on Thursday (Friday IST) focussing on broadening the bilateral partnership, including in the fields of defence, energy, space and critical technology.

Modi and Trump called for more collaboration in space exploration, including on long-duration human spaceflight missions, spaceflight safety and sharing of expertise and professional exchanges in emerging areas, including planetary protection, according to a joint statement issued after the discussions.

The leaders committed to further commercial space collaboration through industry engagements in conventional and emerging areas, such as connectivity, advanced spaceflight, satellite and space launch systems, space sustainability, space tourism and advanced space manufacturing, it said.

The Prime Minister's visit to the US from February 12-13 came nearly three weeks after the January 20 inauguration of Trump.

In the joint statement, the leaders hailed 2025 as a pioneering year for US-India civil space cooperation, with plans for a NASA-ISRO effort through AXIOM to bring the first Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS).

It also mentioned an early launch of the joint 'NISAR' mission, the first-of-its-kind to systematically map changes to the Earth's surface using dual radars. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar or 'NISAR' will be used by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for a variety of purposes including agricultural mapping, and landslide-prone areas.

The leaders also announced the launch of the US-India 'TRUST' ('Transforming the Relationship Utilising Strategic Technology') initiative, which will catalyse government-to-government, academia and private sector collaboration to promote application of critical and emerging technologies in areas such as defence, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum, biotechnology, energy and space.

The statement also said that the TRUST will encourage the use of verified technology vendors and ensure that the sensitive technologies are protected.

As a central pillar of the 'TRUST' initiative, the leaders committed to work with US and Indian private industry to put forward a US-India Roadmap on Accelerating AI Infrastructure' by the end of the year, it said.

The roadmap will identify constraints to financing, building, powering, and connecting large-scale US-origin AI infrastructure in India with milestones and future actions, it said.

At a media briefing here on Thursday (Friday IST), Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the two leaders launched a new, innovation bridge modelled after the successful INDUS-X platform for defence applications.

INDUS Innovation is meant to focus on space, energy and other emerging technologies to maintain US and India leadership in innovation and to meet the needs of the 21st century, the joint statement added.

The leaders also reinforced their commitment to the INDUS-X initiative, which facilitates partnerships between US and Indian defence companies, investors and universities to produce critical capability for our militaries, and welcomed the next summit in 2025.