India USA defense partnership in last 20 years

Subject : International Relations

Section: India and Major powers

Concept :

Jet engine deal could defeat some of the scepticism around previous big ticket India U.S. deals that did not result in a deal. For example,
NPCIL Westinghouse MoU for six nuclear reactors in Andhra Pradesh first signed in 2009 and held up by Indian regulations.
Petronet Tellurian deal for investment in an LNG project in the U.S. signed in 2019,
Negotiations between India and the U.S. over jet engine Transfer of Technology (ToT) that were held under the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) framework from 2012 to 2019 before being shelved over the U.S. export regulations.
However, , many steps had been taken prior to the GEF414 announcement that makes this case different from the last round of talks and the nuclear deal.

Some of them are,

Major Defence Ally status in 2016
Strategic Trade Authorisation1 (STA1 Status) in 2018,
Signing of four “foundational agreements” between the two militaries,
Launch of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) between National Security Advisers (NSAs).
Strategic Trade Dialogue set up between the two governments would help resolve any issues that crop up.

Significance

U.S.’s decision to offer ToT to India despite India’s contrary position on Russia and dependence on Russian hardware means that the U.S. “has come to accept” India’s strategic autonomy, and that a stronger India is in the U.S.’s interest as it can pose a deterrent to China.