Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar gets tour of USS Eisenhower

WASHINGTON: India ' s defence minister Manohar Parrikar and US defense secretary Ashton Carter interacted together on Tuesday is any suggestion, military cooperation between the two sides is proceeding apace. ' It was stand out, ' ' Parrikar would say later in a talk with journalists, after US Carter, a military historian who has taken part interest for physics with the IIT-ian minister, flew him in his Pentagon aircraft for a four-hour guided tour. In fact, at a displacement of more than 100,000 tons, Mighty Ike, as the Nimitz class carrier is nicknamed, is among the largest in the world. It more than twice the size of India ' s own INS Vikramaditya, and even larger than the nuclear carrier INS Vishal that India hopes to add to its armada. In a joint statement issued at the end of Parrikar ' s visit, his first to U.S as defence minister, that included the first by an Indian defence minster to the US Pacific Command in Hawaii, the two sides reflected the hurried progress they were making on this signature item, besides a good deal of other military technologies. A Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation had positive discussions in the first round, and a second round has been scheduled in February 2016 in India, they disclosed. They also expressed satisfaction that the Jet Engine Technology Joint Working Group met this week in Bengaluru and they had concluded its Terms of Reference. They had also discussed on productive for cooperation in this area. According to the result of this policy update, Americans will be able to expand cooperation in production and design of jet engine components. Both sides will now wait for U.S. companies working with their Indian counterparts to submit transfer requests that will benefit from this updated policy.