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            US Defense Secretary Hagel Meets Indian Foreign Minister

   by Reuters

   U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met India's Foreign Minister Sushma
   Swaraj in New Delhi to bolster defense and strategic ties.

   Hagel is on a three-day-visit to India to prepare ground for Prime
   Minister Narendra Modi's impending meeting with President Barack Obama
   next month.

   One of the major benefits for Hagel could be an Indian offer to
   significantly increase an order for U.S. attack helicopters.

   The Apache gunships and a deal for Chinook helicopters, both built by
   Boeing, will top the agenda in Hagel's talks on Friday with India's new
   administration, including Defense and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,
   later in the day.

   India has offered a follow-on order of 39 AH-64D Apache helicopters in
   addition to the 22 now being negotiated, an Indian Defense Ministry
   official said. The sides have been wrangling over the price of the
   gunships, however, with the initial deal having been estimated to be
   worth $1.4 billion.

   The two countries have rapidly expanded military and business ties in
   recent years, despite discord over issues such as intellectual property
   rights and market access.

   Washington is keen to step up cooperation across the board, seeing
   India as a strategic partner in the face of an increasingly powerful
   and assertive China.

   Hagel's talks will also cover military exercises and co-production and
   co-development of armaments and the renewal of a 10-year defense
   cooperation agreement that runs until 2015.

   Hagel's trip follows one by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last
   week and is part of the build-up to talks between Modi and President
   Barack Obama in Washington in September.

   The U.S. is hoping for Modi to overcome bureaucratic obstacles, citing
   potential for billions of dollars of new arms sales in the next few
   years.

   Last month, India's cabinet cleared a proposal to allow 49 percent
   foreign participation in the defense industry, up from a current cap of
   26 percent.

   U.S. defense sales to India have grown from the low hundreds of
   millions of dollars in the decade to 2008 to more than $9 billion since
   that year.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-us-defense-secretary-hagel-meets-
   indian-foreign-minister/2406859.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-us-defense-secretary-hagel-meets-indian-foreign-minister/2406859.html