The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to President Obama at the White House June 7 resulted in a joint statement and fact sheet committing the U.S. and India to increased cyber cooperation.
During the third major bilateral summit, Obama and Modi reviewed the “deepening strategic partnership between both countries” rooted in shared values and committed to cooperating on multiple cyber issues, the joint statement said.
The joint factsheet highlighted the U.S. and India have a strategic cyber relationship reflecting those shared values, common vision, and shared principles for cyberspace. Given those shared factors, Obama and Modi first committed to deepen cybersecurity cooperation and complete the Framework for the U.S.-India Cyber Relationship, which is expected to be signed within 60 days, a White House fact sheet said.
Other commitments include enhancing cyber collaboration on critical infrastructure, cybercrime, and malicious cyber activity by state and non-state actors, capacity building, and cybersecurity research and development. They agreed to continue discussions on all aspects of technology trade and related services, including market access.
The agreement highlighted “a commitment to promote closer cooperation among law enforcement agencies to combat cybercrime between the two countries” and “a desire to cooperate in strengthening the security and resilience of critical information infrastructure.”
The U.S. and India also agreed to continue dialogue and engagement on Internet governance issues, including in forums like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and others to support active participation by all stakeholders. Obama and Modi committed to likewise promote stability in cyberspace based on the applicability of international law, particularly including the United Nations Charter, promotion of voluntary norms of responsible state behavior during peacetime, and development and implementation of practical confidence building measures between countries.
The countries also affirmed a commitment to voluntary norms that no country should conduct or knowingly support online activity that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs its use to provide services to the public and that no country should conduct or support activity intended to prevent national computer security incident response teams from responding to cyber incidents.
Other cyber norms the countries agreed on include committing that no country should use its own cyber response teams to enable online activity intended to do harm; that every country should cooperate, consistent with its domestic law and international obligations, with requests for assistance from other states in mitigating malicious cyber activity emanating from its territory; and that no country should conduct or knowingly support information and communications technology (ICT)-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to its companies or commercial sectors.
The joint statement also included points of agreement on strengthening global nonproliferation and military domain security.
Obama thanked Modi for his participation in the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit and welcomed the offer to host a Summit on Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism in 2018. Both countries plan to work together to combat the threat of terrorists using chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological materials.
Both leaders also said they looked forward to India’s imminent entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime while Obama welcomed India’s application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and reiterated that India is ready for membership.
On other defense matters the leaders welcomed the completion of a roadmap for cooperation under the 2015 U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region. The roadmap is set to serve as a guide for future collaboration between the countries. “They resolved that the United States and India should look to each other as priority partners in the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region,” the joint statement said.
Obama and Modi welcomed enhanced military to military cooperation between the countries, noting joint exercises, training, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR). They expressed a desire to explore further agreements to facilitate expansion of bilateral defense cooperation in practical ways.
The joint statement also highlighted that the U.S. recognizes India as a Major Defense Partner, allowing it the continue facilitating technology sharing to a level commensurate with the U.S.’s closest allies and partners. Obama and Modi also reached an understanding under which India would receive license-free access to a range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India commits to take to advance U.S. export control objectives.
Obama also committed to enhancing cooperation to support the Indian government’s Make in India Initiative, therefore expanding co-production and co-development of technologies under the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). Both leaders welcomed the establishment of DTTI working groups to include items covering naval, air, and other weapons systems. They also announced the finalization of the text of an Information Exchange Annex under the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation.
Modi later reiterated the points of agreement at a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress on June 8.
Previous bilateral meetings that also included roadmaps and Joint Statements were during Modi’s visit to the U.S. in September 2014 and Obama’s visit to India in January 2015.