Washington/New Delhi, Feb 14 (FN Agency) India and the US announced a new initiative – the US-India COMPACT – Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology for the 21st Century – to drive transformative change across key pillars of cooperation – defence, investment and trade, energy security, technology and innovation, multilateral cooperation, people to people connection.According to the joint statement, following talks between PM Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, the two sides firmed up a new 10-year Framework for the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership in the 21st Century, which will be signed this year.The US would expand defense sales and co-production with India to strengthen interoperability and defense industrial cooperation.“The leaders welcomed the significant integration of US-origin defense items into India’s inventory to date, including C‑130J Super Hercules, C‑17 Globemaster III, P‑8I Poseidon aircraft; CH‑47F Chinooks, MH‑60R Seahawks, and AH‑64E Apaches; Harpoon anti-ship missiles; M777 howitzers; and MQ‑9Bs.
“The leaders determined that the U.S. would expand defense sales and co-production with India to strengthen interoperability and defense industrial cooperation. They announced plans to pursue this year new procurements and co-production arrangements for “Javelin” Anti-Tank Guided Missiles and “Stryker” Infantry Combat Vehicles in India to rapidly meet India’s defense requirements.”India is to procure six additional P-8I Maritime Patrol aircraft to enhance its maritime surveillance following agreement on sale terms.The two sides will review their respective arms transfer regulations, including International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), in order to streamline defense trade, technology exchange and maintenance, spare supplies and in-country repair and overhaul of U.S.-provided defense systems.They called for opening negotiations this year for a Reciprocal Defense Procurement (RDP) agreement.They called for accelerating defense technology cooperation across space, air defense, missile, maritime and undersea technologies.The US announced a review of its policy on releasing fifth generation fighters and undersea systems to India.
They announced a new initiative – the Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance (ASIA) – to scale industry partnerships and production in the Indo-Pacific.[The Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance refers to India-US cooperation in the area of underwater domain awareness technologies.The US has offered a few co-production and co-development opportunities for UDA technologies, on commercial basis.India is the very first country with whom US defence industry has offered to work with on these sensitive technologies.They agreed to demonstrate mutual commitment to address bilateral trade barriers.“The United States welcomed India’s recent measures to lower tariffs on U.S. products of interest in the areas of bourbon, motorcycles, ICT products and metals, as well as measures to enhance market access for U.S. agricultural products, like alfalfa hay and duck meat, and medical devices. India also expressed appreciation for U.S. measures taken to enhance exports of Indian mangoes and pomegranates to the United States. Both sides also pledged to collaborate to enhance bilateral trade by increasing U.S. exports of industrial goods to India and Indian exports of labor-intensive manufactured products to the United States. The two sides will also work together to increase trade in agricultural goods.”
The leaders “welcomed ongoing investments by Indian companies worth approximately $7.35 billion, such as those by Hindalco’s Novelis in finished aluminum goods at their state-of-the art facilities in Alabama and Kentucky; JSW in steel manufacturing operations at Texas and Ohio; Epsilon Advanced Materials in the manufacture of critical battery materials in North Carolina; and Jubilant Pharma in the manufacture of injectables in Washington. These investments support over 3,000 high-quality jobs for local families.”They announced launch of INDUS Innovation – a new innovation bridge modeled after the successful INDUS-X platform, that will advance U.S.-India industry and academic partnerships and foster investments in space, energy, and other emerging technologies.Pharma: They announced expanding Indian manufacturing capacity, including in the U.S., for active pharmaceutical ingredients for critical medicines.The two sides announced aunch of the Strategic Mineral Recovery initiative – a new U.S.-India cooperative program to recover and process critical minerals (including lithium, cobalt, and rare earths) from heavy industries like aluminum, coal mining and oil and gas.An MoU was signed – for a new partnership between the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Indian Anusandhan National Research Foundation in researching critical and emerging technologies[On February 11, 2025, Director of US NSF Sethuraman Panchanathan, and Chief Executive Officer of ANRF, Abhay Karandhikar, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation between US NSF and ANRF.The MoU will serve as a general framework of cooperation between both Participants to facilitate discussions and to chart out more specific programs of collaboration on critical and emerging technologies.
People to PeopleThere was recognition that the 300,000 strong Indian student community contributes to over $8 billion annually to the U.S. economy which helped create a number of direct and indirect jobs.They agreed to strengthen collaborations between the higher education institutions through efforts such as joint/dual degree and twinning programs, establishing joint Centres of Excellence, and setting up of offshore campuses of premier educational institutions of the U.S. in India.They announced launch of the Indian Ocean Strategic Venture – new bilateral, whole-of-government forum to advance coordinated investments in economic connectivity and commerce.Meta’s announcement of a multi-billion, multi-year investment in an undersea cable project – is to begin work this year and ultimately stretch over 50,000 km to connect five continents and strengthen global digital highways in the Indian Ocean region and beyond.They announced plans to build new plurilateral anchor partnerships in the Western Indian Ocean, Middle East, and Indo-Pacific to grow relationships, commerce and cooperation across defense, technology, energy and critical mineralsThe two sides condemned terrorism; called out Pakistan – to bring perpetrators of 26/11 and Pathankot to justice; and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorist attacksThe U.S. announced that the extradition to India of Tahawwur Rana has been approved.