India should diversify its sources of arms purchases and weapon inductions as a means to augment its defence capabilities, a top US official said on Thursday.
Hinting that there were 'vested interests' among India's traditional weapon suppliers, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Defence James Clad said these elements did not want a change.
It is time that Indian defence planners worked towards making the country's aeronautical and defence industry global in nature and bring in economies of scale, he said.
Clad also said that the US was 'forward leaning' as far as the transfer of armaments technology to India is concerned.
"We have some institutional safeguards in weapons technology transfer. But along with it there is system of review whenever major sales come up," he remarked.
His comments assume significance in the wake of India floating its biggest ever global tender of over $10 billion to purchase 126 fighter jets. Estimates have also projected that New Delhi will spend a whopping $40 billion on arms purchases in the coming years.
Though giant US armament companies have been in contention in India for the past two years, they are yet to notch up any major deal.
"While we (the US) are keen to come into the Indian armament market, we don't plan to displace anybody," Clad said while speaking on the theme 'Indo-US Defence and Strategic Partnership' at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.
On whether US defence companies were shying away from investing in India, he said they were actually keen to bolster defence contacts with the country.
"US corporates are keen on joint ventures in India," he said, however adding that it was up to India when and how it went about commercialising its defence industry.
Referring to offsets, he said Washington was officially opposed to these as it felt that they increased the cost of weapons but US corporates had offset proposals going the world over.
Asked whether Washington is pressing New Delhi to join the Proliferation Security Initiative, Clad said there was broad recognition in the US of India's flawless non- proliferation record but it wanted the country to subscribe to the aims of the programme.
On missile defence, Clad said it was a 'community approach project' in which a large number of countries were participating and it was up to India to become a development partner in the venture.