New Delhi: To provide impetus to defence
relations with India, United Kingdom`s Defence Secretary Liam
Fox on Tuesday met his counterpart A K Antony here and discussed
regional security, military cooperation and joint training
drills.
The security situation in South Asia and also the
bilateral visits planned for the next six months came up for
discussions between Fox and Antony, Defence Ministry officials
said here.
This is the first visit to India by a serving UK
Secretary of State for Defence since 2005.
Fox, who arrived here yesterday, also met other Union
Ministers and senior national security officials.
In their joint statement of July 29 this year, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and his British counterpart David
Cameron had welcomed "the development of broad-based UK-Indian
co-operation in the defence sector."
Fox`s visit represented the next stage in taking this
forward, a release by British High Commission in India said.
India and Britain share long-standing defence relations
with the latter selling important military equipment including
an aircraft carrier, Jaguar fighter jets, Sea Harrier naval
fighter aircraft and Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers to India.
Eurofighter Typhoon, an European consortium EADS` fighter
jet in which Britain is a partner, is currently competing in
the USD 11 billion Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA)
tenders that the IAF had floated in 2007 and a decision on the
deal is expected in another six months.
Eurofighter Typhoon is competing with American Lockheed
Martin`s F-16 and Boeing`s F/A-18, Russian MiG-RAC`s MiG-35,
French D`Assault`s Rafale and Swedish SAAB`s Gripen aircraft
in the MMRCA tenders described as `mother of all deals`.
PTI
