Article Posted on : - Jul 19, 2023

Defence Minister of Argentine Republic Jorge Enrique Taiana with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (Unseen) during a bilateral meeting, in New Delhi, Tuesday, July 18, 2023. A PTI Photo

NEW DELHI (PTI): Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has held talks with his Argentine counterpart Jorge Enrique Taiana with a focus on enhancing defence industrial partnership.

Argentina is one of the very few countries which expressed interest in procuring India's Tejas light combat aircraft. It is not immediately known whether the issue figured in the talks on Tuesday between the two defence ministers.

"Both ministers discussed the ongoing defence cooperation initiatives, including measures to enhance defence industrial partnership," the defence ministry said.

A tri-services guard of honour was accorded to the visiting dignitary ahead of his talks with Singh.

Taiana is on a four-day visit to India. He is accompanied by Secretary International Affairs, Argentine Ministry of Defence Francisco Cafiero.

In a Twitter post, Singh said he had "insightful deliberations" with Taiana on boosting India-Argentina bilateral ties and further consolidating defence cooperation.

The Argentine defence minister visited BrahMos Aerospace.

He is also scheduled to travel to Bengaluru and visit the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) facilities and separately interact with the defence start-ups in an event organised by Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX).

India-Argentina relations were elevated to the level of strategic partnership in 2019.

An MoU on defence cooperation too has been in force since 2019 while both sides are engaged to conclude further instruments to deepen the engagement, the ministry said in a statement.

The two countries are working closely together to make defence engagements an important facet of their strategic partnership, it said.