US has made great progress in further bolstering defence relationship with India: Pentagon

Washington: The US has made great progress in bolstering its defence relationship with India and the Pentagon is looking forward to making further progress in military-to-military ties in 2024, a senior official has said.

“In terms of the relationship between the US and India, you know, with obvious focus on the Department of Defence, I think it has been a very good year. I think we've made great progress in terms of further bolstering our relationship and cooperation,” Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder told reporters at a news conference here.

“You've heard us talk about things like INDUS-X and working on defence cooperation efforts to include in the industrial base as far as developing things like jet engines in India, working collaboratively to produce armoured vehicles in India, the ability of our ships to go to India -- our Navy ships to go to India to be repaired,” he said in response to a question on Tuesday.

“So all of this working toward the common vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region where sovereignty is respected, and countries can operate in international airspace, sail the international waterways freely and without harassment. We will continue to work closely with our partner, India. And we look forward to further progress in 2024,” Ryder said.