India, US hold 19th military cooperation meeting to boost defence engagements

New Delhi: The two-day-long 19th military cooperation meeting between India and the US has ended in Agra in Uttar Pradesh, the Defence Ministry stated on Thursday.

"The discussions focussed on strengthening the ongoing defence engagements between the two sides and mulled on new initiatives under the ambit of existing cooperation mechanism," the ministry noted in a statement.

The meeting took place at a time when Russia is conducting a major military operation against Ukraine. Western countries like the US have imposed major economic sanctions on Russia.

Around 70 per cent of



Indian defence equipment is of Russian origin.

The India-US military cooperation group is a forum established to progress defence cooperation between the countries through regular talks at the strategic and operational levels between Headquarters of Integrated Defence Staff and the US Indo-Pacific Command, the Defence Ministry mentioned. The meeting, which ended on Wednesday, was co-chaired by Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (CISC) Air Marshal BR Krishna from the Indian side and Deputy Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command Lieutenant General Stephen D Sklenka from the US side, it noted.