NEW DELHI: India and the US have discussed ways to strengthen collaboration in “critical and emerging defence technologies” to meet the evolving requirements at a key meeting hosted here, officials said.Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) hosted the 24th Indo-US Joint Technical Group Plenary Meeting in New Delhi on Feb 3 and 4, they said. As per the statement, the plenary was conducted in line with the vision and policy guidance of the framework for India-US major defence partnership signed by defence minister Rajnath Singh and the US secretary of war Pete Hegseth in Oct 2025. The delegations also reviewed the ongoing cooperation in defence science and technology, discussed associated challenges, and examined proposals to further strengthen collaboration in critical and emerging defence technologies to meet the evolving requirements.The statement further noted that the discussions also focused on enhancing the participation of university-affiliated research centres, defence laboratories and industries in cooperative research and development initiatives. Additionally, the meeting explored potential collaboration between DRDO, and the defence innovation unit under the innovation bridge framework and concluded with the signing of a project agreement. The meeting was co-chaired by director general (production coordination and services interaction), DRDO, Chandrika Kaushik, and assistant secretary of war for critical technologies, office of the under secretary of war for research and engineering, Michael Francis Dodd, the defence ministry said.
