EAM Jaishankar with Pete Hegseth Defence Secretary at Pentagon for Strategic Defence Partnership

News World Around

Transcript

00:00Well, Mr. Minister and your team, thank you so much for being here.

00:11Welcome to the Pentagon.

00:12Thank you for taking the time.

00:15And we certainly look forward to future engagements as well,

00:17hopefully a two-by-two with Minister Singh,

00:20who had a chance to speak to this movement this morning,

00:23as well as Secretary Rubio.

00:25In their February meeting,

00:26almost right at the beginning of the administration,

00:28President Trump and Prime Minister Modi

00:30set a strong foundation for our relationship

00:32that we're building on here today.

00:34Productive, pragmatic, and realistic.

00:37And our nation's boast a rich and growing history of cooperation,

00:41driven by a shared commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

00:45We're both clear-eyed regarding the dangers of aggression in the region,

00:49and most importantly, we possess the strength,

00:52and I believe wisdom, to gather counter it.

00:54The United States is very pleased with the successful integration

00:58of many U.S. defense items into India's inventory.

01:03And building on this progress,

01:05we hope we can complete several major pending U.S. defense sales to India,

01:10expand our shared defense-industrial cooperation and co-production efforts,

01:15strengthen interoperability,

01:17which is something Minister Singh mentioned multiple times between our forces,

01:21and then formally sign a new 10-year framework

01:24for the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership,

01:27which we hope to do very soon.

01:29We're eager to work alongside you to realize our shared goals.

01:34They're deep and ongoing.

01:37Mr. Minister, your visit today marks an important milestone

01:39in the ongoing series of high-level engagements

01:42between our two great countries.

01:45Once again, thank you for being here.

01:47Look forward to a robust discussion with your team

01:50and a lot of partnership going forward.

01:52Thank you, sir.

01:55Mr. Secretary,

01:56I'm a very warm, very sincere word of appreciation

02:01for the welcome given me.

02:04As we were discussing coming up the stairs,

02:07I first came to this building more than 40 years ago.

02:09I've seen some big changes in this 40 years,

02:13and I think some of those changes were reflected

02:16in the conversation we had with Mr. Singh this morning.

02:21Now, I'm here for the Quad meeting.

02:25I just had a good session with the UBO

02:27and our colleagues from Australia and Japan.

02:30But I'm also here with you, Arthur Pentagon,

02:33because we believe that our defense partnership is today

02:39truly one of the most consequential pillars

02:42of the relationship.

02:45It's not built merely on shared interests,

02:50but we believe really deepening convergence

02:55and of capabilities, of responsibilities.

03:01And what we do in the Indo-Pacific,

03:05we believe is absolutely crucial to its strategic stability.

03:10There's a lot that we will and we should be talking about today,

03:15but I do particularly want to recognize

03:18that signing our foundational agreements,

03:21especially in SOSA recently,

03:23of our expanding defense trade,

03:26of our cooperation in underwater domain awareness,

03:29in autonomous systems,

03:30and the momentum in the Indus X,

03:35I think all of these really speak of a deepening partnership.

03:38The world is a complicated place,

03:42I think perhaps growing in its complexity,

03:47and certainly our partnership

03:50and the contribution that we can make together,

03:53I think would be of immense importance,

03:56not just for us, I think,

03:57but for the larger region,

03:59I would even argue for the world.

04:01Once again, it's a very great pleasure

04:03to be here with you.

04:04I look forward to our conversations.

04:06Well, we very much do it the same way.

Category

Transcript

Recommended