Defence Minister Rajnath Singh holds phone talks with US counterpart Hegseth

New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday held a telephonic conversation with new US counterpart Pete Hegseth to review the bilateral defence relations and discuss a framework agreement on defence co-operation for the next decade, official sources said here.

“The two ministers reviewed the extensive India-US defence cooperation activities covering multiple domains in land, air, maritime and space,” a Defence Ministry spokesperson said.

The discussions took place less than a week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned trip to Washington. A summit meeting between Modi and US President Donald Trump is scheduled on February 13 in which several key bilateral issues are to be discussed.

The Defence Ministry official said India and US agreed to work together to draft a comprehensive framework on defence cooperation, aimed at structuring the bilateral collaboration for the period 2025-2035.

He said Singh and Hegseth decided to work together on technology cooperation, integration of defence industrial supply chains, enhanced interoperability, logistics & information sharing and joint military exercises.

They also agreed to provide enhanced support to the growing defence innovation collaboration between the governments, start-ups, businesses and academic institutions.

In a social media post Singh said, “We reviewed the ongoing defence cooperation and explored ways and means to expand and deepen the India-US bilateral defence relationship. We also agreed to chart out an ambitious agenda which includes operational, intelligence, logistics and defence-industrial cooperation. "Looking forward to working closely with Secretary Hegseth."