New Delhi: Giving a fillip to bilateral defence cooperation between two countries, India and the United States have signed a statement of intent to strengthen the dialogue on defence technology cooperation.
The 10th Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) Group Meeting was held virtually on September 15, wherein the meeting was co-chaired by Indian defence production Secretary Raj Kumar and US’ Under Secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment Ellen M Lord.
Objective of DTTI Group:
The DTTI group aims to bring the sustained leadership focus to the bilateral defence trade relationship and also to create opportunities for the co-development and co-production of the defence equipment.
The four joint working groups focused on air and aircraft carrier naval, land, technologies that have been established under Defence Technology and Trade Initiative.
The technologies have been established to promote mutually agreed projects.
Key Highlights
• The co-chairs during the virtual meet noted that since the last DTTI Group Meeting which was in October 2019, a DTTI Standard Operating Procedure for the development and identification of cooperative projects under DTTI has been completed.
• The SOP has also been serving as the framework for DTTI and allows both sides to reach and document a mutual understanding of how to define success.
• The publicly releasable extracts of the key elements of the Statement of Procedure have also been published in July as the DTTI initial guidance for industry and distributed through the US and Indian industry association.
About DTTI:
The Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) Group Meetings are normally conducted twice every year, alternating between the United States and India.
However, this year amid the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the authorities had decided to conduct the meeting virtually.
