Jaishankar EAM in Pentagon with Pete Hegseth for Strategic Defense Deals

Transcript

00:01Well, Mr. Minister and your team, thank you so much for being here.

00:06Welcome to the Pentagon.

00:07Thank you for taking the time.

00:09And we certainly look forward to future engagements as well,

00:12hopefully a two-by-two with Minister Seng, who had a chance to speak to you this morning,

00:17as well as Secretary Rubio.

00:19In their February meeting, almost right at the beginning of the administration,

00:23President Trump and Prime Minister Modi set a strong foundation for our relationship

00:27we're building on here today, productive, pragmatic, and realistic.

00:31And our nations boast a rich and growing history of cooperation,

00:35driven by a shared commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

00:39We're both clear-eyed regarding the dangers of aggression in the region,

00:43and most importantly, we possess the strength and, I believe, wisdom to together counter it.

00:49The United States is very pleased with the successful integration

00:53of many U.S. defense items into India's inventory.

00:57And building on this progress, we hope we can complete several major pending U.S. defense sales to India,

01:04expand our shared defense-industrial cooperation and co-production efforts,

01:09strengthen interoperability, which is something Minister Seng mentioned multiple times,

01:14between our forces, and then formally sign a new 10-year framework

01:18for the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership, which we hope to do very soon.

01:23We're eager to work alongside you to realize our shared goals.

01:28They're deep and ongoing.

01:31Mr. Minister, your visit today marks an important milestone

01:34in the ongoing series of high-level engagements between our two great countries.

01:39Once again, thank you for being here.

01:41I look forward to a robust discussion with your team

01:44and a lot of partnership going forward. Thank you, sir.