India is one of the fastest growing global economies, situated in a geo-politically strategic location, shares a border with China and has legacy Russian military equipment.
This set the scene for our House of Commons Defence Committee’s trip to India as part of our Indo-pacific enquiry.
India’s Army, of over 1.2m service personnel, is restructuring to meet the demands of a modern military. The UK / India Roadmap, equipment procurement, joint exercises, cyber security, counter terrorism and future collaboration were on the agenda, especially as India is looking to substantially upgrade their air, sub surface and surface fleet.
It was an opportunity to meet their Defence Secretary - Shri Rajnath Singh, their Chief of Defence Staff and visit the Western Naval Command in Mumbai. In addition to meetings with various think-tanks and Indian Defence Manufacturers, Rolls-Royce plc & BAE Systems.
In addition it was good to acknowledge the largest ever single commercial aircraft acquisition between Airbus, Airindia Limited, IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd) which in turn supports jobs in my constituency of Wrexham.