NEW DELHI:In a follow-up to US President Barrack Obama’s epoch-making visit to the country, Washington’s newly appointed Ambassador Richard Verma on Wednesday held talks with Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. And the two sides are believed to have discussed the issue of Defence Trade and Technology Initiative that was firmed up during Obama’s visit.
Though the Ministry of Defence(MoD) described the meeting as a “courtesy call”, Verma tweeted that he had “great discussions” on the growing Indo-US defence ties. The meeting comes ahead of a visit by US Under Secretary of Defence for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Frank Kendall later this month. This would be Kendall’s second visit to India this year. In January, Kendall-- Pentagon’s point person for India-related defence issues, especially the DTTI-- along with Indian officials had agreed upon four “pathfinder projects”.