Press Release

Washington, DC
June 28, 2005

Raksha Mantri, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, is presently in Washington on an official 4-day visit to the US at the invitation of the US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld. During the visit, he held meetings with Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, Chairman, Armed Services Committee of the US Senate, Senator John W. Warner, and Congressman Jerry Lewis, Chairman, Appropriations Committee of the House 'of Representatives. Secretary Rumsfeld also hosted a dinner in honour of Shri Mukherjee which was attended amongst others by Vice President Cheney, US Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, National Security Adviser, Hadley, Chairmandesignate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Peter Pace, Senator John Cornyn, CoChair of the India Caucus at the US Senate, and the Co-Chair of the India Caucus in the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, amongst others. He also held talks with Secretary Rumsfeld over lunch on June 28, 2005, which was preceded by a Guard of Honour.

Earlier in the day, Shri Mukherjee paid his respects to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at a solemn ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery. During the visit, he also placed a wreath at the Memorial for the victims of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters. At the Pentagon, he visited and signed the Visitors Book at the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial.

Following his 2-day visit to Washington, Raksha Mantri will visit the Joint Forces Command at Norfolk, Virginia and the Northern Command at Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The talks, which were held in a warm and cordial atmosphere, covered a range of bilateral and international issues of interest to both sides. The meetings revealed a high degree of convergence on issues and challenges facing the international community, in particular on combating terrorism and violent religious extremism, preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, protecting the free flow of commerce, and promoting security and stability in Asia. As two important democracies, the US and India intend to maintain their dialogue on the regional and international situation. Both sides agreed that US-India defence relations are an important pillar of their transforming bilateral relationship.

In the bilateral sphere, Secretary Rumsfeld and RM signed a document entitled `New Framework for US-India Defence Relations', building on the Agreed Minute of 1995. The document sets the framework for US-India defence relations for the next 10 years and visualizes an enhanced level of cooperation covering military to military relations as well as a defence industrial and technological relationship. They agreed to constitute a new `Defence Procurement and Production Group' broadening the scope of the existing `Security Cooperation Group' under the US-India Defence Policy Group (DPG), and to intensify interaction in the context of the DPG. They also agreed to sign an agreement on `Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation' with a view to future cooperation in the sphere of defence R&D. The US side also offered to advance the proposed briefing on the Patriot PAC-III system, which is part of the Phase-II of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP). The two sides will also be signing a Letter of Acceptance (LOA) on naval pilot training. Both sides agreed to step up interaction between the Indian Armed Forces and US Commands.

Side by side with the official engagements, Ra.ksha Mantri, Shri Pranab Mukherjee attended a Defence Industry Round Table, organized by the US-India Business Council in cooperation with FICCI, on June 27, 2005 at which he presented the key-note address. Chief Executives and senior management of over 50 US companies as well as around 15 Indian public and private sector companies actively participated in the event which generated a great deal of enthusiasm. Minister Mukherjee also addressed the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on `India's Strategic Perspectives' which was attended by a cross section of the US strategic community, amongst others. On June 28, 2005, Minister Mukherjee also released the Report of the Task Force of the Pacific Council of International Policy (PCIP) and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) at the Brookings Institution, on US-India relations. The event was attended by Mr. Strobe Talbot, President of the Institution, former US Ambassador to India, Richard Celeste, Gen. (retd) V.P. Malik, amongst other eminent personalities.