New Delhi: India and Israel have agreed to form a task force to formulate a comprehensive ten-year roadmap to identify new areas of cooperation. This was decided at the 15th meeting of the India-Israel Joint Working Group (JWG) on Bilateral Defence Cooperation held on October 27 in Tel Aviv, the Indian Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
The meeting was co-chaired by Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar and the Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Defence, Maj Gen (Retd) Amir Eshel.
The JWG is the apex body between the Ministry of Defence of India and Israel's Ministry of Defence to comprehensively review and guide all aspects of Bilateral Defence Cooperation.
The two sides reviewed the progress made in Military-to-Military engagements including exercises and industry cooperation. The Co-chairs were also appraised on the progress made by the Sub Working Groups (SWG) on Defence Procurement and Production, and Research and Development, according to the Ministry of Defence
It was also decided to form an SWG on Defence Industry Cooperation and in this regard, a Terms of Reference was signed between the two sides.
The formation of this SWG would enable efficient utilisation of bilateral resources, effective flow of technologies and sharing industrial capabilities. It was also decided to schedule the Service level Staff talks in a specific time frame, the statement noted.
It was agreed to hold the next JWG in India on mutually convenient dates.