US envoy to India meets CM Adityanath, discuss UP Defence Corridor

Lucknow: US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster on Tuesday met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and held talks on multiple issues, including developments in Uttar Pradesh Defence Corridor.

The two discussed measures to enhance India-US Defence partnership in the state to newer heights, ahead of the five-day DefExpo 2020 which will begin from Wednesday here.

Earlier in the day, at a press briefing, the US Ambassador said that Washington hopes to announce several billion dollars worth of defence deals with India in the near term.


Juster said, "When I first began working on the US-India relationship in 2001, there were virtually no defence sales between the United States and India. Today, that figure is about $18 billion and there are several billion dollars of additional sales in the pipeline on a range of items, some of which we hope to be announcing in the near term."

He also noted that the US firms participating in the Defence Expo are partnering with companies across India, "including in Uttar Pradesh's Defence Corridor, to produce defence equipment not just for our countries' militaries, but for those of partner nations."