India on Wednesday congratulated Barack Obama for winning a second term in the White House hoping the economic and defence ties between the two countries will be furthered. Obama has been instrumental in pushing through defence deals worth $10 billion with India in his first term creating thousands of jobs back home. Many of the defence deals with the US are still in offing.
As per keen watchers of the defence industry, there will be "renewed thrust" from Obama on signing of more defence deals with India to help the economic crises back home. The total defence trade between the two countries in last 10 years has been $ 10 billion and in 2011 only India has purchased military equipments worth more than $4.5 billion from the US. The big ticket deals signed with the US in the last five years been eight P-8I maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft from Boeing valuing $ 2.1 billion. India is also buying 10 C-17 heavy-lifters from Boeing for $4.1 billion. The six C-130 J special operations aircraft valuing $ 1.2 billion have already arrived in the country and order for six more is in the offing. India is also planning to place an order for M777 ultra light howitzers for $ 700 million to augment its firepower in the mountainous terrain.
In a gesture to reciprocate, the US also eased its US Export Controls and Technology security policies towards India and removed premier Defence Research and Development Organisation and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from the Commerce Department Entity List.
