Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has said India does not want to rely on buyer-seller relationship in defence with America and instead wants to co-produce defence equipment with United States.

New Delhi, Oct 2/Nationalturk – Admitting  that there have been US concerns on Indo-US economic relationship,  Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has said India  wants to co-produce defence equipment with United States.

“In the area of defence cooperation with US, India is trying to move away from the buyer-seller relationship to a relationship based on co-production and based on co-research. The  outcome of my deliberations with US president Obama on defence cooperation during my recent visit New York is in line with our own thinking,” Manmohan Singh told reporters on board flight while returning home from New York.

Indian PM attended the annual session of United Nations General Assembly. He also held talks with US president Barrack Hussain Obama,  Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif and other world leaders during the sideline of UN session.

‘India’s domestic industry should get involved in defence production’

Asked about India’s domestic defence production, Singh said, “We would like our own domestic industry to get involved in domestic production. We would also like Foreign Direct Investment to the extent of 26 percent to come into defence production. So, I think this is a step forward”.

“I and President Obama during our meeting reviewed our cooperation in the area of civil nuclear cooperation. There is now an early works agreement between Westinghouse and also our NPCIL. At the inter-governmental level, there are no irritants in the implementation,” he said.

Singh said there have been important steps forward in India-US cooperation in the field of knowledge initiative,  education,  energy and  environment related issues. “In all these areas, it is an ongoing relationship and President Obama and I  re-committed our two countries to work together to enhance understanding and cooperation.”

‘There have been US business concerns’

Asked whether Indo-US economic relationship has deteriorated  with US business lobbying with the US government to investigate Indian trade practice, Singh said, “There have been US business concerns but these largely arose out of the slowdown of the Indian economy.”

“When Indian economy was growing at the rate of 8 to 9 percent, I think everybody was quite happy. Even defects in our policies were overlooked, and when the economy slows down people try to find fault and excuses. President Obama did not go in detail with me. He did understand our concerns but he also said that it is time that the CEOs Forum on both sides sat together to discuss these issues and to find out the meeting ground,” added Indian PM.

Write your comments and thoughts below

Faiz Ahmad / NationalTurk India News