One Year of the INDUS-X: Defense Innovation Between India and the U.S.

Ajay Kumar and Tejas Bharadwaj

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Background

One of the most transformational geopolitical relationships since the beginning of the twenty-first century has been that of India and the United States in defense. Following minimal exchange during the Cold War, the relationship thawed on the back of a strong information technology (IT) outsourcing relationship that developed in the 1990s. In 2002, the two countries signed the General Security of Military Information Agreement to permit the exchange of military intelligence. In 2005, the New Framework for the India-U.S. Defence Relationship was signed which delineated some common areas of interest—defeating terrorism, preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and protecting the free flow of commerce via land, air, and sea. These developments were followed by the landmark Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative in 2008 that deepened strategic cooperation between the two countries in energy security and non-proliferation.

In 2011, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed to promote cooperation in cyber security and establish best practices to exchange critical information on cybersecurity and expertise between CERT-In (the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) and the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (U.S.-CERT). September 2013 saw the release of a Joint Declaration on Defence Cooperation, placing both countries “at the same level as their closest partners.” In 2016, India was recognized as a “Major Defense Partner” of the United States. Both countries followed it up by signing a series of foundational agreements from 2016 to 2023 in military logistics, communications security, and geospatial intelligence, increasing the synergy and interoperability between the two militaries. In 2018, India was granted Strategic Trade Authority-1 (STA-1) status by the United States, permitting it to receive license-free access to advanced dual-use technologies from entities in the United States. The Industry Security Annexe signed in December 2019 was particularly important as it enabled collaboration between private industries of the two countries and offered greater access to defense industrial information.