1 JUNE 5, 2023 | ROADMAP FOR U.S.-INDIA DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL COOPERATION
The United States and India have established a wide-ranging, strategic partnership in which defense and security
cooperation have evolved to become a vital pillar of engagement. The vision for bilateral defense cooperation
was established in the September 2013 Joint U.S. – India Declaration on Defense Cooperation and the 2015
Framework for the U.S. – India Defense Relationship, wherein the United States and India signaled their
continued commitment to defense cooperation to promote regional and global security and stability.
Building on these foundational documents and recognizing the strong record of investments by U.S. businesses
in India’s defense ecosystem for decades, the two countries commit to accelerating and deepening the integration
between our respective defense industrial sectors. As such, the United States and India will work together to
identify immediate and high-impact opportunities to cooperatively produce the systems required to meet India’s
military modernization objectives. Such efforts can lead to greater opportunities for cooperative development of
new technologies and cooperative production of existing systems, in turn strengthening supply chains and
bolstering India’s domestic defense industry. This work will also contribute to the U.S.-India initiative on Critical
and Emerging Technology (iCET) announced in January 2023 to elevate and expand strategic technology
partnership and defense industrial cooperation.
In advancing defense industrial cooperation, India and the United States endorse the following general principles
of cooperation:
► The United States and India will each evaluate changes to their respective policies and authorities required
to support enhanced defense cooperation.
► India and the United States will work with their domestic defense industries to encourage greater business-
to-business ties and industrial partnerships. The development and growth of these industrial ties will lead
to dividends for innovation and people-to-people ties.
► The United States and India will work to facilitate dialogue between government and industry to address
areas of mutual concern, that may inhibit collaboration, such as licensing, export controls, security of
supply, barriers to defense trade, foreign direct investment, and technology transfer and security. Both
sides are committed to identifying and discussing any regulatory barriers in the defense domain.
► India and the United States will identify concepts for mission-driven cooperative projects to solve military
problems of mutual interest, and in alignment with national strategic vision and requirements, involving
advanced technologies. Bilateral security concerns will serve as the basis for prioritizing engineering work
in prototyping and experimentation, and for forecasting needs for applied and basic research among the
nations’ defense scientific communities, governments, industries, and centers of innovation. The projects
will be structured with intent to facilitate co-development, and eventually co-production opportunities.
► With an aim to make India a logistic hub for the United States and other partners in the Indo-Pacific region,
the United States intends to support India in the creation of logistic, repair, and maintenance infrastructure
for aircraft and ships.