US, India sign pact for reciprocal priority support to promote national defence

The United States (US) and India have signed an agreement to provide reciprocal priority support for goods and services to promote national defence and to enable the two countries to acquire the industrial resources they need from one another to resolve unanticipated supply chain disruptions to meet national security needs.

Vic Ramdass, the American principal deputy assistant secretary of defence for industrial base policy, and Indian defence ministry’s additional secretary and director general (acquisitions) Samir Kumar Sinha signed the non-binding Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA) on Thursday.

India is the 18th SOSA partner of the US after Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Ramdass called the arrangement a pivotal moment in the US– India Major Defense Partner relationship and added it will be a key factor in strengthening the US –India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). He said he looked forward to hosting the next DTTI meeting this fall to deepen cooperation between defence industrial bases and pursue bilateral co-development, co-production, and co-sustainment initiatives.

In 2023, the two countries concluded a new road map for future defence industrial cooperation with the goal of fast-tracking technology cooperation and co-production in critical areas in a renewed push for deepening collaboration. The areas included air combat and land mobility systems, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, munitions, and the undersea domain.

SOSA comes five years after India and the US signed the Industrial Security Agreement to shore up defence cooperation. It allows the US government and American original equipment manufacturers to share classified information with private Indian defence firms.

The US and India committed under SOSA to support one another’s priority delivery requests for the procurement of critical national defense resources. Washington will provide India assurances under the US Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS), with program determinations by the US Department of Defense (DoD) and rating authorization by the Department of Commerce (DOC).

India will establish a government-industry Code of Conduct with its industrial base, where Indian firms will voluntarily agree to make every reasonable effort to provide the US priority support.

“With an expanding global supply chain for DOD, SOSAs are an important mechanism for DoD to strengthen interoperability with US defense trade partners. The Arrangements institute working groups, establish communication mechanisms, streamline DoD processes, and proactively act to allay anticipated supply chain issues in peacetime, emergency, and armed conflict. They are also a useful tool in developing investment strategies to ensure redundancy and security,” DoD said in a statement.