US and India to develop weapons together with an eye on China

Washington: The United States is planning to "work closely" with Delhi in countering China alongside co-developing drones in India, a Pentagon official said.

Eli Ratner, assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs, told reporters and defence experts that India wants to diversify its weaponry and develop its defence industry.

As part of the move, India will build drones and export them to other countries, according to a report by AFP.

Ratner was quoted as saying that the US and India will co-produce and co-develop capabilities to support India's own defence mordernization goals.

By modernization, he was referring to Russian-made weaponry which India largely relies on to meet its defence requirements.

Producing weaponry might help India export them to "our" partners in South and Southeast Asia at affordable rates, according to the official.

Without revealing much about what weapons are to be jointly produced, he hinted at developing drones launch-able from airplanes and anti-drone defence systems.

Ratner said that both parties had conversations regarding respective priorities and more about this will be hopefully announced soon.

With China aggressively flexing its muscles, the US and India put aside differences between them thus working closely together previously under PM Modi and President Donald Trump, according to the report.