India and the United States have sealed two agreements, one to jointly develop protective gear for soldiers against biological and chemical warfare, and the other on building next-generation power sources for the battlefield, according to Reuters. Each of these projects have $1 million in funding shared equally by the two sides, a U.S. defense official said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter who is on his second visit to the Asia-Pacific region since becoming defense secretary in February, said “Some of the projects that we’re launching just now are, in part, intended to blaze a trail for things to come,” reported U.S. News.
One aspect of Carter’s trip to India is greater maritime cooperation, and he began his visit Tuesday with a stop at India’s Eastern Naval Command in the port city of Visakhapatnam. He toured a navy ship INS Sahyadri, before flying on to New Delhi. Carter signed a new 10-year defense cooperation pact with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parikkar and agreed to work on enhancing cooperation in maritime security.
The United States has become one of the main sources of weapons for the Indian military, and under Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s “Make-in-India” program has offered joint development and production of military technologies. Carter and Parikkar also agreed to expedite talks on cooperating on jet engines and aircraft carriers.
