With Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely to receive a grand welcome in Washington DC next week, President Joe Biden is keen to see progress on a proposed deal for India procuring at least 18 armed MQ-9 Predator B drones from the General Atomics of the United States.
New Delhi is likely to seek an extension of the lease for the two Sea Guardians – the unarmed version of the MQ-9 Predator B drones used for surveillance – the Indian Navy had received from the General Atomics of the US.
The proposed deal for India to procure 18 drones from the US company at an estimated cost of about $ 2 billion was on the agenda for discussion during the visit of Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to New Delhi. Sullivan called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had a meeting with his counterpart Ajit Doval on Tuesday. He also had another round of talks with Doval on Wednesday, apart from having a meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
The visit of Sullivan was preceded by another by the US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, who had a meeting with his counterpart, Rajnath Singh, in New Delhi early last week.
Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra and the Principal Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, P K Mishra, recently visited Washington DC.
The back-to-back engagements between India and the US are part of the preparations for the meeting between the Prime Minister and the US President in the White House on June 21 and 22 next.
Uncertainty, however, continued to loom large over the proposed deal for India to procure 18 armed drones from the US company. A source told DH in New Delhi that the government could not yet complete the internal process required before moving forward for clinching the deal. Besides, New Delhi has conveyed to Washington DC its general interests in the co-production of military hardware in India.
The two unarmed surveillance drones were used by the Indian Navy. They were also used by the Indian Army to keep watch on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s deployment along the India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. The drones were taken on lease after India-China military stand-off reached a flashpoint with a violent clash between the soldiers of the two nations at Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020.