"Will see deeper engagement": India, Romania to deepen defence cooperation in drones, aerospace

Bucharest [Romania], July 24 (ANI): India and Romania are set to deepen their partnership, with cooperation expected to expand in areas such as drone technology, aerospace, defence manufacturing and industrial collaboration, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday following President Droupadi Murmu's State Visit to Romania from July 23 to 25.
Addressing a special media briefing, Secretary (West) in the MEA, Sibi George, said defence cooperation has emerged as a key pillar of the bilateral partnership, with both sides welcoming growing engagement between their defence establishments, including the recent Joint Committee of Defence Cooperation meeting held in May.
"There is huge scope to further strengthen collaboration in defence manufacturing, industrial collaboration, defence technologies, maritime security, cybersecurity, etc. Several Indian companies are exploring opportunities for co-development and co-production in the defence sector, including in civil and defence aeronautics and next-generation drone technologies," George said.
Responding to a question on the future of India-Romania defence ties, George said India was focusing on indigenous defence production through its two defence corridors and was expanding collaboration with partner countries, including Romania.
"As you are aware, we have been putting a lot of effort into the indigenous production of defence in recent years. We are focusing on two major defence corridors in India, one in the south and one in the north, and there has been huge progress in our collaboration with many of our partner countries, including from some of the European countries," he said.
"And Romania is one of those countries with which we are looking at having more collaboration in the defence sector. I mentioned drone technology and aerospace. These are some of the areas which we are looking at," George added.
The MEA official said collaboration was progressing and indicated that further developments could be expected soon. "There has been significant progress. I don't want to get into the specific companies which are engaged in this collaboration and cooperation. But I can assure you that in the coming months, you will see deeper engagement between our two countries in the defence sector," he said.
"There has already been a Joint Committee meeting which identified areas of cooperation. So it's a work in progress, and we will be seeing significant progress there," George added.
The two sides also discussed cooperation in combating global terrorism. George noted that Romania had supported India in its fight against terrorism and had strongly condemned the Pulwama terror attack.
In addition, the leaders discussed cooperation in digital public infrastructure. President Murmu invited Romania to explore adopting India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to facilitate trade and tourism.
The President also announced the doubling of Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) training slots for Romania, including specialised programmes in Artificial Intelligence. Romanian diplomats were also invited to participate in a forthcoming professional course at the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service focusing on Artificial Intelligence and cyber diplomacy. (ANI)