JOIN USBoris Johnson offers India help to build its own fighter jets
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Boris Johnson on Friday agreed on a “new and expanded” defence partnership even as India's differences with the western countries over the Russia-Ukraine conflict of late brought the focus back on its dependence on the former Soviet Union nation for military hardware.
Johnson refrained from overtly nudging Modi to change New Delhi's cautious approach and denounce Russia's aggression against Ukraine. He, however, noted that “the threats of autocratic coercion” had grown even further over the past year. He also told journalists separately after meeting his counterpart in New Delhi that India also wanted Russia to be out of Ukraine.
He and Modi expressed in strongest terms concern about the ongoing conflict and humanitarian situation in Ukraine. The two prime ministers "unequivocally condemned civilian deaths and reiterated the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution of the conflict," which was having severe implications across the globe, in particular for developing countries.
Johnson conveyed to Modi that the British Government would issue an Open General Export Licence (OGEL) to help India import restricted military hardware and technology from the UK without bureaucratic hassles and delay. The UK agreed to meet India’s requirement for new technology to identify and respond to threats in the Indian Ocean region, where Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy's forays increased over the past few years. The British Government will also support manufacturing of fighter jets designed and developed in India.
The two leaders also sent out a subtle message to Beijing underlining the shared vision of an open, free, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region in which countries would remain free from military, economic, and political coercions.
“We’ve agreed to work together to meet new threats across land, sea, air, space and cyber, including partnering on new fighter jet technology, maritime technologies to detect and respond to threats in the oceans,” Johnson said as he and Modi addressed the media-persons after the meeting. They also agreed to step up India-UK military and industrial collaboration in maritime electric propulsion systems. “We have also agreed to enhance cooperation in the defence sector. We welcome the UK's support for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in all sectors of manufacturing, technology, design and development in the defence sector,” said Modi.
India's dependence on Russia for military hardware stopped it from joining the US, the UK and the other western nations to condemn the former Soviet Union nation's aggression against Ukraine.
New Delhi has been conveying to London and Washington D.C. that India's defence cooperation with Russia was built over decades, beginning with the days, when the western nations had been denying it access to military technology and hardware.
Modi-Johnson meeting on Friday saw the two nations agreeing to work bilaterally and with key partner countries to facilitate the industries in India get highest level access to defence technology in the UK and other nations.
The two prime ministers welcomed the finalisation of the Letter of Arrangement between the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation to help deliver advanced security capabilities through joint-research, co-design, co-development and joint production of defence technology and systems – particularly in key and emerging military technologies.
They agreed that the finalisation of the India-UK Logistics and Training MoUs would deepen understanding and trust and enable further collaboration and cooperation between the two nations. They agreed to expand cooperation in the maritime domain and called for early conclusion of the Maritime Information Exchange Arrangement on dark and grey shipping. They also called for increased engagements on critical and emerging domains of defence including space, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cyber.
The two prime ministers noted the importance of robust defence industrial collaboration for manufacturing of defence equipment, systems, spare parts, components, aggregates and other related products and key capabilities, under the Make-in-India program through co-development, indigenisation, transfer of technology and setting up of joint ventures for meeting the needs of the armed forces of India and other countries.
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