India and the United States agreed to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation and emphasised the importance of service-to- service ties at the meeting of the Defence Policy Group which concluded in Washington on Wednesday.
The three-day meeting of the DPG was co-chaired by Indian Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt and Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Eric Edelman.
The two sides exchanged views on the international strategic and security situation and on the further development of bilateral defence cooperation as envisaged under the Indo-US Defence Framework agreement, inked in June this year.
"Both countries view their bilateral defence cooperation as an important facet of the India-US global partnership, reflected in the India-US Joint Statement of July 18, 2005," a statement issued at the end of the seventh round of talks said.
"India and the United States emphasised the importance of service-to-service ties. In this context, they took note of the series of successful joint exercises between the armed forces of both countries including the recently held 'Cope India 2005' exercise between November 7-17, 2005," it said.
Apart from discussions on issues and challenges ahead, Dutt also called on US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and also held meetings with Under Secretary of Defence Kennneth Krieg and Deputy National Security Advisor J D Crouch.
The DPG, at its current session, also reviewed the reports of the four sub-groups - Military Cooperation Group, Joint Technology Group, Senior Security Technology Group and Senior Technology Security Group and the Defence Procurement and Production Group.
Prior to the formal meeting of the DPG, the newly constituted DPPG held its first meeting in Washington from November 18 to 21.
The DPGG discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in the field of defence supplies as well as industrial and technological cooperation between the two countries.
