The third meeting of the India-US Defence Policy Group (DPG) was held in New Delhi on December 3-4, last year. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr Yogendra Narain, Defence Secretary to the Government of India and Mr Douglas Feith, Under Secretary for Policy in the US Department of Defence.

India and the United States have agreed that the Executive Steering Group of the three Services of the two countries would meet before the end of February to plan and review military-to-military cooperation and oversee implementation of the visits, exercises and training programmes.

The two sides understood the importance of a stable, long-term defence supply relationship as part of the overall strategic cooperation between India and the United States. Since the waiver of sanctions, a number of applications for export licenses have been approved by the US Departments of State and Defence and are in the process of notification to Congress. These include licences related to weapon location radars. The US also agreed to expedite the review of India’s acquisition priorities including engines and systems for light combat aircraft, radars, multi-mission maritime aircraft, components for jet trainers and high performance jet engines. To assist this licensing and sales process in the future, the two sides have resolved to establish a separate Security Cooperation Group to manage the defence supply relationship between India and the United States. This Group will meet in February-March, this year.

i) That the Joint Technical Group under the DPG would meet in February-March, this year to discuss the promotion of bilateral ties in the field of defence production and research.

ii) That the US Joint Staff and the Indian Chief of Integrated Defence Staff will meet in the spring of 2002 before the next meeting of DPG and regularly thereafter, to discuss tri-service institutions, military planning, and tri-service doctrine.

iii) That a new structured dialogue between the US Defence Department’s office of Net Assessment and its Indian counterpart will develop exchanges between the defence research and analyses communities in both countries.