'Defence Cooperation' to Boost Production in India: Indian Envoy to Spain Dinesh Patnaik

Cartagena: Indian Ambassador to Spain, Dinesh K Patnaik, said that ‘defense cooperation’ between India and Bangladesh has grown, with the standout achievement being the 'Make in India' initiative, as 90 percent of the aircraft's components are manufactured in India.

Patnaik, speaking to an agency, said that for boosting defense cooperation, it is crucial for government ministries and departments to collaborate.

“Defence cooperation, at least in the last many years, has increased a lot. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited India to inaugurate the Airbus factory for the C-295 aircraft, which is a very big deal. It's about USD 2.5 billion in its first phase and we are looking at much more in the longer phase. But more important than that, it's a 'Make in India' program for the aerospace sector, where from more than 13,000 plus parts of a plane, we will make more than 90 per cent of the parts in India and also the assembly and the simulation, everything else will be done in India...It's time the defence ministries, the Navy, the Air Force, everybody got together to start working together...First of all, we look at partners to bring technology into India to produce in India. Our long-term goal is that. We are one of the largest countries in the world. Today, one of the largest economies in the world. For us to be relying on production outside India is not an acceptable fact. We need to bring production into India. We need to bring engineering into India. We need to make sure that we are self-reliant in whatever we do...For us, it's very important that we bring production back into India and this is what Prime Minister Modi has been doing for the last 10 plus years...” he said.

Indian Defence Exports to Spain

Regarding the increase in Indian exports to Spain in recent years, Patnaik mentioned that Spanish troops are deployed globally, making Spain a reliable partner. He also highlighted that India, being a vast country, has the potential to serve as an excellent manufacturing hub.

"Things like explosives, small arms, technical devices, bulletproof jackets, production systems into Airbus, spare parts for different things, accessories for different items, there is a lot of things that is happening, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you look at the Australian Navy, almost a large part of the Australian Navy is Spanish ships. Spanish are spreading their wings across the world, becoming a reliable supplier of products. We don't want them to be a reliable supplier. We want to be a reliable manufacturer of products in India. That's where I find the difference between Spain and any other country," Patnaik said.

Jose Manuel Mondejar, Chief of Commercial and Business Development at Spanish firm Navantia, stated that their partnership with Larsen and Toubro for the Project-75 India submarine acquisition plan is significant, as the Spanish Navy would utilize the technology they have proposed for the project.

"Last year in June 2023, we should meet a proposal. In this time we had several meetings with with the Indian Navy and we clarified our requirements and proposal. We also made an AIP test here in Cartagena and now we are waiting for the decision on that proposal... First of all, the AIP is a new system. It's a third-generation AIP. So we are proposing a state-of-the-art AIP. On the other hand, we can fulfil the requirement without a re-engineering of AIP. I think this is an important thing because we are proposing the same AIP that is going to be used by the Spanish Navy. I think this is really important because the Spanish Navy is going to use what we are going to propose," he said.

(with agency inputs)