General Electric (GE) has applied to the US government for permission to jointly produce jet engines with India as part of an initiative between Washington and Delhi to create a strategic technology partnership.
The US and India have announced details of their partnership to share advanced defence and computing technology as the US seeks to counter China and lure India away from its ties to Russia.
The two sides revealed plans to develop a bilateral Defence Industrial Cooperation Roadmap in May 2022 to accelerate technological cooperation.
The White House said both countries were looking at joint development and production in areas related to jet engines, munition-related technologies and other systems.
It promised to expedite its review of GE’s proposal on jet engines, which could power combat jet aircraft operated and produced indigenously by India.
India and the US are also looking at launching a new “Innovation Bridge” to connect US and Indian defence startups.
National security advisor Jake Sullivan said the two countries would enhance bilateral collaboration on semiconductor supply chains and develop a semiconductor design, manufacturing, and fabrication ecosystem in India.
“Both countries intend to promote the development of a skilled workforce that will support global semiconductor supply chains and encourage the development of joint ventures and technology partnerships on mature technology nodes and packaging in India,” said the White House.
Sullivan told reporters the initiative was not only aimed at containing China and Russia.
“The China-Russia factors are real, but so is the idea of building a deep, democratic ecosystem of high technology,” he said.
“I’m not going to say that facilitating the movement of India off of Russian equipment to other equipment is an irrelevant consideration – of course it is not.”
But he added that China’s rising global influence was having “a profound impact on the thinking in Delhi just as they have had on the profound impact on the thinking in other capitals”.
US and Indian officials have held meetings this week about facilitating technology development and investment as the US tries to create supply chain alternatives to China.
Washington has also secured an agreement with Japan and the Netherlands to restrict exports of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment to China to help slow China’s development of a semiconductor supply chain.