ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the rationale behind defence cooperation and bilateral defence trade, and examines challenges at bureaucratic and institutional levels, which impede the realization of the potential to meet global and regional threats emanating from diverse sources. It spells out future prospects for Indo-US ties in defence and security realms with the installation of the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government. The Indo-US defence relationship has touched new heights in the past two decades, ranging from joint military exercises to defence trade. Indo-US defence cooperation is generally characterized as quasi-informal military alignment. Top-ranking bureaucrats in India's defence establishment, therefore, need to do intensive homework to maximally protect and advance the country's manifold national interests, lest US national interests should jeopardize India's core national interests. India's deepening defence and security ties with the United States has produced ripples in the oft-repeated time-tested friendship between New Delhi and Moscow.
