Dr. Mark T. Esper, Hon’ble Secretary of Defence of the United States of America is visiting India for the 2+2 Ministerial Meeting. Today Shri Rajnath Singh, Hon’ble Raksha Mantri had a bilateral meeting with him in South Block, New Delhi. The two ministers reviewed bilateral defence cooperation spanning military to military cooperation, secure communication systems and information sharing, defence trade and industrial issues and also discussed ways to take bilateral cooperation forward.
Both the Ministers expressed satisfaction at the close engagements between the respective Armed Forces. They discussed potential new areas of cooperation, both at Service to Service level and at the joint level. They called for continuation of existing defence dialogue mechanisms during the pandemic, at all levels, particularly the Military Cooperation Group (MCG). They also discussed requirements of expanding deployments of liaison officers.