DEFENCE Minister Rajnath Singh held the 4th India-France Annual Defence Dialogue with his French counterpart, Sebastien Lecornu in New Delhi on Monday. The ministers reviewed the ongoing military-to-military cooperation which has “increased substantially” in the recent years. They also discussed means to strengthen maritime cooperation and increase the scope and complexity of bilateral exercises.

According to the Defence Ministry, during the dialogue, one of the key areas of discussion was defence industrial cooperation with a focus on ‘Make in India’. Future collaborations and potential co-production opportunities were also discussed during the dialogue. The ministers agreed that the technical groups from both the countries should meet early next year and take the key cooperation issues forward, a Defence Ministry official said.

Singh said, “The meeting was held in cordial atmosphere. A wide range of bilateral, regional, defence and defence industrial cooperation issues were discussed.