U.S.-India Joint Fact Sheet: International Security

U.S.-India Joint Fact Sheet: International Security

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

June 24, 2013

Defense cooperation is an important aspect of U.S.-India bilateral collaboration. The defense relationship encompasses military-to-military dialogues, exercises, defense sales, professional military education exchanges, and practical cooperation. Both sides plan to continue pursuit of defense cooperation to mutual benefit. Both sides reiterated that the defense establishments of both countries should remain engaged through the process of dialogues, regular staff talks, reciprocal high level visits, and other exchange.

The bilateral defense trade has also been expanding. In this regard, the induction of the C-130J and C-17 aircraft into the Indian Air Force and of the P-8I maritime patrol aircraft into the Indian Navy is an important milestone. Both sides concur on the need to go beyond buyer-seller relations and on the opportunities for wider defense trade and industry collaboration in areas of mutual interest. Both sides are engaging in a number of ways and through diverse forms of dialogue and exchanges to progress defense cooperation.

The United States and India continue to strengthen bilateral cooperation to counterterrorist groups – including through annual Counterterrorism Joint Working Group meetings and the Homeland Security Dialogue, which last met in May 2013. Such discussions have facilitated close coordination in areas such as cyber security including, critical infrastructure protection, global supply chain security, countering counterfeit currency and illicit financial flows; mega city policing as well as cooperation in capacity building. The two countries have also cooperated on the investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and continue to work together to fight terrorism, organized crime and threats to the internal security of both countries.

The United States and India plan to soon hold another round of whole-of-government Cybersecurity Consultations chaired by their respective national security councils to coordinate positions on cross-cutting cyber-security issues that impact international and economic security. The Consultations consider overall bilateral cooperation on cyber-security, cyber-security best practices, supply-chain security, and norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace. In addition, the State Department and the Ministry of External Affairs chaired the first successful meeting of a cyber experts’ Strategic Cyber Policy Dialogue focused on cyber policy issues such as norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace, internet freedom, internet governance, and cybercrime cooperation. Robust operational cooperation continues between India’s Computer Emergency Response Team and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

The United States and India are cooperating to facilitate missions to recover the remains of U.S. service members from World War II.

ENDS

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