New Delhi: India and the United States have signed a bilateral Security of Supply Arrangement, through which the two countries will provide reciprocal priority support for goods and services that promote national defence.
The signing took place just as defence minister Rajnath Singh visits the US. The two countries also signed a Memorandum of Agreement on the assignment of liaison officers. In a post on X on August 21, Singh wrote that he is looking forward to meeting with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin. “Will discuss areas of strategic interests, while seeking to strengthen defence cooperation,” he added.
Singh will also meet the US assistant to the president for national security affairs, Jake Sullivan.
The defence ministry had earlier said that Singh’s visit comes in the backdrop of the growing momentum in India-US relations and defence engagements at multiple levels.
The SOSA was signed by Vic Ramdass, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy, on behalf of the US, and Samir Kumar Sinha, additional secretary and director general (acquisitions), on behalf of the Indian ministry of defence.
The US government’s press release says that the US and India commit to support one another’s priority delivery requests for procurement of critical national defence resources.
“The US will provide India assurances under the U.S. Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS), with program determinations by DoD and rating authorization by the Department of Commerce (DOC). India will in turn establish a government-industry Code of Conduct with its industrial base, where Indian firms will voluntarily agree to make every reasonable effort to provide the U.S. priority support,” it says.
The US has 17 other SOSA partners, among whom are Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom.
In 2016, the US designated India as a Major Defense Partner. In 2018, India was elevated to Strategic Trade Authorization tier 1 status, which allowed India to receive licence-free access to a wide range of military and dual-use technologies regulated by the US’s department of commerce.
In 2021, an Industrial Security Agreement summit was held between India and the US between September 27 and October 1.
