Prime Minister Narendra Modi is about to visit Washington, DC, in the last week of June. On the visit, the Biden administration wants India to cut through its own red tape and advance a deal for U.S-made armed drones, which is expected to be worth $2 billion to $3 billion. However, India has previously shown interest in buying large armed drones from the United States.
The U.S. Negotiators expect Narendra Modi to visit the White House on June 22 to finalise the deal. Since PM Modi’s visit was organised, the U.S. state government, Pentagon and White House have been asking India to show progress on buying SeaGuardian drones. Besides this, both country leaders can discuss the co-production of munitions and ground vehicles, like armoured personnel carriers.
India and the U.S. have been sharing strong bonds for a long time, despite U.S. support to Russia and China.
In this context, the U.S. administration said, “That’s going to be a decision that the government of India needs to make. We think it would be good for them to go through with the purchase of MQ-9s. But those decisions are sort of more in the hands of India than they are of us.”
To finalise preparation for Modi’s visit to the US, Biden’s National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, arrived in India on Tuesday. Earlier, India was planning to buy 18 drones from the U.S., but now there is no such news on this matter circulated.
However, India is backing up itself with powerful international and domestically manufactured equipment, so there may be a chance that PM Modi will finalise this deal.
