*WASHINGTON - *
The US has discussed a potential missile defence collaboration with India, a top Pentagon official has said, underlining that Washington wants to build a "much deeper and broader relationship" with New Delhi.
Under Secretary of Defence for Policy John Rood, however, said that it is early to determine how far India, which already has substantial domestic missile defence capabilities, will go regarding the defence collaboration, PTI has reported.
"We have talked to the Indians about missile defence as potentially an area as well to collaborate on. It''s early days to determine how far that will go," Mr Rood said speaking at a think-tank in Washington on Thursday. by Taboola link: Sponsored Links link: . link Ever Put These Foods In Your FridgeHealth & Human Research link
"The Indians have substantial capabilities domestically of their own and they've done some development of missile defences. So the degree to which they're interested in acquiring or working collaboratively with us in the US remains to be seen," Mr Rood said when asked about reports that India is interested in purchasing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system popular as THAAD from the US.
The previous Obama administration was not very forthcoming in sharing its advance missile defense system with India, following which New Delhi went ahead to procure it from Russia. Promoted: In Stores
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As part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, the Trump administration now seems to be more than inclined to let India procure its missile defense system with talks between the two countries having already started.
Making an appearance before the prestigious Hudson Institute think-tank, Mr Rood said the US is certainly open to this kind of collaboration with India.
"And if that isn''t one of the areas they choose to go in, there's quite a bit of other meaty areas that we can pursue. Maybe I should have chosen a term rather than meaty, quite a few Indians are vegetarian as you know," Mr Rood said jokingly.
The US has had a very positive relationship with the Indian government, he said. "And we''re building a, what we hope is a much deeper and broader relationship with them, all the way from the presidential level with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi on down," he said.