Mr. Parrikar, at the meeting with Carter on Wednesday and Thursday, is likely to tell the US that its policy of engaging Pakistan is not working. The Defence Minister’s visit comes against the backdrop of reported US plans to sell eight F-16 fighters and 15 attack helicopters to Pakistan.
Besides Pakistan, Parrikar will also take forward the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI) as both countries work towards greater collaboration in joint development and manufacture of next-gen military technology. Both Parrikar and Carter will review the functioning of the joint working group on aircraft carrier and identify technologies India could acquire in future.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar is on maiden visit to the US, which is India’s biggest arms supplier. Beginning tomorrow, a high-powered business delegation of Indian defence firms will also travel to the US.
The idea is to concur the business delegation’s visit with that of Parrikar to help push industry to industry engagement as currently, the Indo-US defence contracts are marked by a huge tilt towards Government to Government (G2G) and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route.