The US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta met the Defence Minister AK Antony in New Delhi on June 6, 2012. Panetta was accompanied by a ten member delegation, including the US Ambassador to India and other senior officers from the US Department of Defence. The Indian delegation included the Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma, Secretary Defence Production Shekhar Agarwal and the Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, Dr VK Saraswat.
During the delegation level talks which lasted about an hour, both sides took note of the ongoing bilateral cooperation between India and the US in the area of defence. During the discussion of the defence trade Antony emphasised that the priority for India is to move beyond the buyer-seller transactions and to focus on transfer of technologies and partnerships to build indigenous capabilities. The US Secretary of Defence assured the Indian side that the US government will initiate measures to facilitate technology access and sharing.
