Indian Chief of Army Staff has telephonic meeting with US Army Chief

On Tuesday, Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane spoke by phone with his American counterpart, General James C McConville, about bilateral military relations and successfully coping with the coronavirus outbreak.

Defence relations between India and the United States have improved in recent years. India and the United States signed the BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement) agreement in October of last year to strengthen bilateral defence relations. The agreement allows the two countries to share advanced military technology, logistics, and geospatial maps.

The two counterparts discussed on ways to further ramp up actions to accelerate and further broaden bilateral cooperation between the armed forces of the two nations, keeping in view the rapidly changing geo-political circumstances.

The United States named India as a "Major Defence Partner" back in June 2016, with the aim of bringing defence trade and technology exchange with India up to par with that with its strongest partners in the world.

Also in 2016, the two sides reached the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), which enables the two militaries to utilise each other's bases for supply repair and maintenance while also allowing for greater collaboration.

The two nations have definitely gravitated towards one another based on their shared values of democracy and aligned vision for world affairs, the armed forces of the two countries practise and collaborate regularly in all capacities.

The meeting between the two Army chiefs comes against the backdrop of the ravaging second wave of Covid-19 which has hit India, it is reported that the relief efforts for the virus were also discussed on the telephonic meeting.