India and the U.S. have made progress in their discussions on signing the two remaining foundational agreements and the issue will figure prominently at the upcoming India-U.S. two-plus-two dialogue in Washington in July, officials said.
“India is now keen to move quickly on the remaining two foundational agreements and some progress has been made. The U.S. is keen to quickly get them out of that way so that technology cooperation can move forward,” a diplomatic source told The Hindu . The source said apart from the foundational agreements, the U.S. was keen on a broad-based intelligence-sharing agreement.
Another source said the foundational agreements were essential to take high technology cooperation to the next level.
India and the U.S. concluded the logistics pact — Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) — the first of the three foundational agreements, in 2016 after a decade of negotiations. But India was reluctant to move ahead on the other two agreements — Communications Compatibility And Security Agreement and Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Information and Services Cooperation.
The dialogue which got postponed is likely to take place on July 6 and will be attended by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and U.S. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
