US and India has recently committed to starting new defence space exchanges between the countries and has signed a Space Situational Awareness Arrangement.
According to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the US and India signed a bilateral space situational awareness agreement on Monday.
The agreement was signed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Austin with their Indian equivalents, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, during a US–India 2+2 ministerial on Monday.
“I’m pleased to announce that just a few moments ago, we signed a bilateral space situational awareness arrangement, and this will support greater information sharing and cooperation in space,” Austin said during a press meet following the meeting.
Austin stated that the US is “committed” to starting new defence space exchanges between the US Space Command and India’s Defense Space Agency later this year.
“We’re also deepening our cooperation in cyberspace, including through training and exercises later this year. And we’re expanding our information sharing partnership across all warfighting domains,” Austin added.
President Joe Biden made the statements shortly after virtually meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Counterterrorism, operationalizing the Major Defense Partnership, new domains of cooperation in space and cyber and emerging technologies, and multilateral cooperation were all discussed at the US–India 2+2 ministerial.
Broad discussions were conducted between the world’s two greatest democracies as the US seeks more support from India in criticising and putting economic pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow refers to as a “special military operation.”
“Recently, the news of the killings of innocent civilians in the city of Bucha was very worrying,” Modi said during a segment of his discussion with Biden that was accessible to press. “We immediately condemned it and have asked for an independent probe.”
In recent conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Modi has urged that Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy establish direct talks.
The Space Situational Awareness Agreement, according to Blinken, “is a demonstration of our growing technology partnership which we believe has virtually limitless potential for exploration, for discovery, for achievement, to the benefit of people in both of our countries and indeed around the world.”
“We look very much forward to continuing to build a stronger future for both of our countries, both of our peoples through our defense and security cooperation, through our deeply connected economies, through our shared values and common bonds, and to do so for many, many decades to come,” he said.
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