India US sign pact for mutual supply of defence goods & services

Washington: India and the United States have inked a bilateral non-binding Security of Supply Arrangements (SOSA) to ensure the mutual supply of defence goods and services and address unanticipated supply chain disruptions to meet respective national security needs.

The signing of SOSA, which took place on Thursday during the ongoing four-day visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to Washington, partially eases the US’ restrictive export control regime. The Indian industry has long demanded a level playing field in defence industrial cooperation.

Negotiations for the Reciprocal Defence Procurement Agreement (RDP), are still ongoing between the two countries. Through the RDP, Indian companies will be able to service US Department of Defence (DoD) contracts and vice versa, American businesses will have to honour Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) deals.

The two sides also signed the Memorandum of Agreement regarding the Assignment of Liaison Officers as a follow-up to the earlier mutually agreed decision to enhance information sharing between India and US.

India is said to have posted three Colonel level officers in US Commands: at the Hawai-headquartered Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), the Special Operations Command (SOCOM/USSOCOM) based in Florida and Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) in Bahrain, which is US-led multinational maritime force.

It was signed by Joint Secretary for International co-operation, Ministry of Defence Vishwesh Negi and Assistant Secretary of State for Defence for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Dr Ely Ratner, the MoD posted on X on Friday.

Meanwhile, the SOSA was signed by Samir Kumar Sinha, MoD’s Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisitions), and Dr. Vic Ramdass, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, representing the United States.

Through the SOSA, the United States and India agree to provide reciprocal priority support for goods and services that enhance national defense, said the US Department of Defence in a statement to the media.