Carter: Anti-IS fight is ‘not a fight with Muslims or Islam’

Image: U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter (R) and India’s Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar leave a joint press conference after their meeting at the Pentagon in Washington, December 10, 2015.

The scope of this Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) has so far been modest because of concerns about intellectual property protection on the part of US companies.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar deftly ducked a “potential nuclear bomb” of a question on Donald Trump’s controversial call to ban all Muslims entering America, saying “in India, we gel well” and “don’t look towards communities with suspicion”. They discussed the India-US defense relationship and broader India-US strategic partnership and focused on ways to maintain the strong momentum of security and defense engagement, including means to further move the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) forward.

Mr. Carter and Mr. Parrikar expressed satisfaction with DTTI progress to date.

“We have identified many new areas for cooperative research and development, and both sides are committed to continue to exchange ideas in the search for additional projects for possible co-development and co-production that meet the spirit of DTTI”, he said.

Welcoming the minister, USIBC president Mukesh Aghi said, “The past decade has been a period in which our bilateral security ties have seen robust growth, not just in value, but in the level of technical partnership as well”. Minister Parrikar welcomed announcement of USA participation in the International Fleet Review of the Indian Navy at Visakhapatnam in February 2016.

“It reinforces the very deep cultural relationship between the United States and India – a people-to-people thing, a democracy-to-democracy, and innovative culture to innovative culture, sticking up for principles around the world”.

But India is and has been sharing intelligence with the United States on issues related to terrorism, he said. This speaks not only to aircraft carrier technology cooperation between the two nations, he said, “but also to expanding cooperation in maritime security”.

“As a result of this policy update, the Secretary is confident that the United States will be able to expand cooperation in production and design of jet-engine components”, the joint statement said. During his visit, Minister Parrikar also met with senior National Security Council officials and members of Congress.

“Terrorism has become a global phenomenon and requires a comprehensive response”.

“The US government needs to reciprocate positively for technology transfer approvals and leverage opportunities created by the procedural changes in Indian defence procurement”, he said.

“Today, India – I’m pleased to say – is conducting more military exercises with U.S. than any other country”, Parrikar said, adding that terrorism was one of the key topics of discussion.