India-US to set-up JWG in Defence industrial security

October 2, 2021

India and United States (US) held their Industrial Security Agreement (ISA) summit between September 27 to October 01, 2021 at New Delhi.

Key facts

The summit was organised in order to develop a protocol to exchange classified information between the defence industries of both the countries.
It was led by “Designated Security Authorities (DSAs)” viz., Anurag Bajpai from Indian side and David Paul Bagnati from US sides.
It was held to create a roadmap to implement the ISA.
DSAs also visited the Indian defence industry in preparation for the creation of roadmap.
During the summit, they agreed to establish the Indo-US Industrial Security Joint Working Group.

Joint Working Group

The joint working group will meet periodically to align the policies and procedures that will allow the defence industries in collaborating on cutting edge defence technologies.

Industrial Security Agreement (ISA)

ISA is the part of India-U.S. General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). It was signed at the second 2+2 dialogue in Washington in December 2019. The agreement will provide a framework to exchange and protect the classified military information between the defence industries of both the countries. It allows sharing of classified information from US government as well US companies with the Indian private sector. Till the signing of agreement, sharing of information was limited to the Indian government and defence public sector undertakings. Thus, ISA will give a boost to Indian private sector seeking a greater role in defence manufacturing.