India and the US are eager to develop and improve their strategic technology alliance and defence industrial cooperation in light of China’s tech-driven expansionist aspirations. The two countries’ commitment to fostering an open, accessible, and secure technological ecosystem, based on mutual trust and confidence, that will promote our democratic ideals and institutions has been reaffirmed by the White House. In the twenty-first century, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) activities play a crucial role in defence readiness. The $3 billion MQ-9B predator-armed drone agreement, which has been in the works for the previous five years, needs to be expedited between India and the United States as a result of this. These drones should aid New Delhi in strengthening its observation capabilities along the Line of Actual Control and the Indian Ocean, two areas where China has been actively exercising its military might lately.Even though China has claimed that it was a civilian airship used for research, the discovery of a Chinese surveillance balloon, which was seen flying over US airspace days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing, suggests that there is no room for complacency when national security is involved.
Video Courtesy: NDTVDespite New Delhi’s protests, the Chinese spy vessel Yuan Wang 5 moored at a Chinese-owned port in Sri Lanka last year, keeping India on its toes in the Indian Ocean. To strengthen defence connections, India and the US must work closely together in areas like artificial intelligence, quantum and communications technologies, high-performance computing, joint manufacture of jet engines, semiconductor supply chains, and commercial space missions.
Such collaboration can boost the two partners’ confidence in their ability to confront China, which CIA Director William Burns has called the greatest geopolitical challenge that the US is facing.
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