As Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reached Washington DC on a four-day official visit, India and US on Thursday signed two key pacts — a non-binding Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA) and a Memorandum of Agreement regarding Assignment of Liaison Officers. The SOSA will mandate the US and India to provide reciprocal priority support for goods and services that promote national defence. “The arrangement will enable both countries to acquire the industrial resources they need from one another to resolve unanticipated supply chain disruptions to meet national security needs,” said a statement issued by the US Department of Defence. The two pacts were signed ahead of Singh's meeting with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in the Pentagon on Friday. At the meeting, both sides expressed satisfaction over the conclusion of the SOSA between India and the US, a Defence Ministry statement said Friday night. “The SOSA signed yesterday in Washington DC encourages the defence industrial ecosystems of both countries to work together, and enhances the supply chain resilience,” it said. India is the 18th SOSA partner of the US after Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. According to the US Department of Defence statement, the SOSA was signed between Dr Vic Ramdass, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Industrial Base Policy, on behalf of the US, and Samir Kumar Sinha, Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisitions), from India. It quoted Dr Ramdass as stating that the SOSA represents a pivotal moment in the US-India major defence partner relationship and will be a key factor in strengthening the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) between the two countries. “I look forward to OUSD (A&S) hosting the next DTTI meeting this fall to deepen cooperation between our respective defense industrial bases and pursue bilateral co-development, co-production, and co-sustainment initiatives,” he said. Under the Arrangement, the US and India have committed to support one another's priority delivery requests for procurement of critical national defence resources, the statement said. It said the US will provide India assurances under the US Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS), with programme determinations by DoD and rating authorisation by the Department of Commerce (DoC). India will in turn establish a government-industry Code of Conduct with its industrial base, where Indian firms will voluntarily agree to make every reasonable effort to provide the US priority support. The statement said that with an expanding global supply chain for DoD, SOSAs are an important mechanism to strengthen interoperability with US defence trade partners. “The Arrangements institute working groups, establish communication mechanisms, streamline DoD processes, and proactively act to allay anticipated supply chain issues in peacetime, emergency, and armed conflict,” it said, adding that they are also a useful tool in developing investment strategies to ensure redundancy and security. The US industrial base policy states that the SOSA is conducted under overarching Declarations of Principles for Enhanced Cooperation in matters of defence equipment and industry that have been signed with select nations. It says that SOSA implements the “Meeting National Defence Requirements” section of these documents, which recognises the potential for a certain degree of mutual interdependence of supplies needed for national security, and calls for the parties to explore solutions for achieving assurance of supply. Dr Swasti Rao, Associate Fellow, Europe and Eurasia Centre, MP-IDSA told The Indian Express that India and the US defence cooperation has been achieving new heights since 2016 with the signing of the foundational agreements and SOSA is the latest in that order. “SOSA is not a game-changer by itself but is an important element of the defence ecosystem that India has developed with the US,” she said. “SOSA will make it easier for Indian companies to get priority supplies from the US and revitalise the defence industry cooperation between the two countries, especially at a time the US has emerged to be one of the biggest procurers of India’s growing defence exports,” she said. However, she clarified that SOSA, despite being an important agreement, is not legally binding and is not sanction proofed. “Once the Reciprocal Defence Procurement Agreement (RDP) which is the second level is signed, it will be legally binding and, in my opinion, that would also be signed soon,” she said. Defence Minister Singh during his meeting with Austin also highlighted the various co-development and co-production opportunities in India in areas identified in the India-US Defence Industrial Cooperation Roadmap, adopted last year, the defence ministry said in its statement. Both leaders held wide-ranging discussions on bilateral defence cooperation, industrial collaboration, regional security and other international issues, it said. They also appreciated the progress made in operationalising the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness, a Quad initiative, and praised the ongoing efforts by India to enhance the Maritime Domain Awareness for the partners in the Indian Ocean Region. The statement said Singh and Austin also welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between India and US regarding the deployment of Liaison Officers. The Memorandum of Agreement regarding the Assignment of Liaison Officers progresses on an earlier decision between the two sides to increase sharing of information between India and the US and will entail posting of Indian armed forces officers in key strategic US Commands. India would deploy the first Liaison Officer to the Headquarters Special Operations Command in Florida, US. In a post on X, Singh termed the signing of the two agreements as “pathbreaking developments”, and added that he and Austin reviewed the existing defence cooperation activities and discussed ways to deepen it further at their meeting. Earlier in the day, Singh participated in a wreath laying ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery. He also interacted with the Indian diaspora in Washington where he said India and US together are a formidable force which can ensure peace, prosperity and stability in the world. During his stay, Singh is slated to meet US Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan. In addition, he will chair a round-table meeting with the US defence industry on the ongoing and future defence collaborations.
