Article Posted on : - Nov 21, 2014

NEW DELHI (PTI): The US on Thursday pitched for greater cooperation with India in the defence sector and underlined the need to enhance trade of high-tech items.

"Increased defence trade and cooperation is vital part of advancing our partnership. India now conducts more military exercises with the US than any other country and defence trade has increased over the past decade.

"Expanding trade and cooperation provides a win-win for the US and Indian national security interests," Eric L Hirschhorn, Under Secretary for Bureau of Industry and Security, US Department of Commerce, said.

He was speaking at the ninth meeting of India-US High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG).

Hirschhorn said the closer cooperation will help in identifying significant and achievable opportunity for co-production and development of defence equipment with Indian companies.

"...cooperation in science and technology, timely procurement processes, co-production and co-development will further strengthen our security relationship," he added.

HTCG has become a valuable platform for discussing high technology trade between the two countries.

He also said that in the area of homeland security, India and the US are essential partners for combating terrorism.

In the HTCG meeting, the discussions would also include homeland security technologies, he said adding "our companies also seek mutually beneficial opportunities to develop India's healthcare infrastructure and expand medical devices sector".

He further said that the US government's initiative for commercial satellites would give Indian companies an opportunity to purchase them up to a certain point of military criticality.

"These actions will increase efficiency, timeliness and security of supply for sale of such parts and components to India," he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh hoped that the US companies will take advantage of the 'Make in India' initiative and recent policy changes to set up manufacturing units in India.

At present, bilateral trade between the two nations is around USD 100 billion. The US-India Business Council (USIBC) had said bilateral trade could touch USD 500-billion mark over the next one decade.

India has received about USD 12.32 billion in FDI from the US companies during April 2000 to August 2014.

CII President Ajay Shriram said that digital and skilling India hold huge potential for the US companies to come here and explore co-development and co-production opportunities.

The HTCG is a dialogue forum to chart out new avenues for high tech cooperation, to identify bottlenecks and determine policy and regulatory measures and address these.

"The procedural hurdles on both sides including slow approvals, multi-layer licensing, lack of clarity in the absence of mutual endorsement of Technical Assistance Agreements and requirement of USG sponsor should be addressed in a stipulated time-frame," Shriram said.

There exist a great potential for American players in the Indian defence and high-tech sectors.