India, US ink agreement to address disruptions in defence supply chain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 23

Amid delay in supply of jet engines for Tejas warplanes from the US, a Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA) was signed between India and the US on Thursday night.

The pact has clauses allowing access to each other’s resources in case of disruptions in supply chain like the one in case of jet engines.

This was the fifth such strategic agreement between India and the US. The fresh agreement comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Ukraine and his cabinet colleague and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is on a visit to the US.

After the agreement was signed in the US, a statement by the US Department of Defence (DoD) on Friday morning said: “The arrangement will enable both countries to acquire the industrial resources they need from one another to resolve unanticipated supply chain disruptions to meet national security needs.”

The pact comes at a time when India’s ambitious indigenous programme - manufacturing Tejas fighter jet - has been held up due to delays in engines to be supplied by a US firm, General Electric.

“The US and India agree to provide reciprocal priority support for goods and services that promote national defence,” the US DoD said.

Under the arrangement, the US and India commit to support one another’s priority delivery requests for procurement of critical national defence resources, said the US DoD. Sources in India said this would also allow US companies to easily source supplies from Indian vendors.

The US will also provide India an assurance under the “US Defense Priorities and Allocations System”. The agreement is for bilateral supplies only.

The mechanism under the SOSA strengthens linkages with US defence trade partners. The arrangement will ally anticipated supply chain issues in peacetime, emergency and armed conflict.

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

The agreement was signed by Vic Ramdass, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, on behalf of the US and Samir Kumar Sinha, Additional Secretary and Director General Acquisitions in the MoD, on behalf of India.