Tokyo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended a warm and strong invitation to American companies to participate in co-development, co-design and co-manufacture even absolute manufacturing under the Make in India and the Atmanirbhar Bharat programmes under the rubrics of defence.
Prime Minister Modi extended the invitation to the US industries during the productive talks he had with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Quad summit in Tokyo.
“The question of India-US defence partnership did come up in discussions between Prime Minister Modi and President Biden. But it was very clear the focus of the discussion was on defence manufacturing by the American companies in India under the framework of Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat,” Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said during a media briefing here.
“Prime Minister Modi extended a warm and a strong invitation to the US industry to come to India to participate in the co-development, co-design and co-manufacture, even absolute manufacturing under the Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat. The focus was on defence manufacturing in India under the rubrics of defence,” he said while responding to a question whether the Biden administration has offered a USD 500 million aid package.
It was reported by a Western media outlet that the package under consideration would include foreign military financing of as much as USD 500 million to wean off India from purchasing military equipment from Russia.
The report said that if deal works out, it would make India one of the largest recipients of such aid behind Israel and Egypt. It’s unclear when the deal would be announced, or what weapons would be included.
