Britain offered technology transfer to India for co-production of military platforms and weapon systems to jointly become “world beaters” in arms exports.
Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon also called for strengthening cooperation between the two countries to effectively deal with terrorism and extremism, calling them a major challenge facing the globe.
The British Defence Secretary is on a four-day visit to India aimed at enhancing security and defence ties.
During an interactive session at a leading think-tank on UK-India strategic ties, he referred to a spate of recent terror attacks including in London, St Petersburg and Egypt and said both India and the UK will have to work harder to deal with the menace.
The British Defence Secretary also gave a run down of reform measures taken by his country in the defence sector and said a partnership with India will provide an unprecedented opportunity to match the British experience with Indian brainpower.
As per statistics collated by UK Trade and Investment, the country is the second biggest arms exporter in the world after the US. It said UK has sold more arms than Russia, China and France on average over the last 10 years.
Fallon will hold talks with Defence Minister Arun Jaitley tomorrow on enhancing security ties and deepening cooperation in combating terrorism and extremism.
By Baishakhi Dutta