India and the US Thursday inked a long-negotiated pact under which critical and encrypted defence technologies will be provided to the Indian military by the Americans, officials said here. The 'Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement (COMCASA)' was signed after the first two-plus-two talks External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had with US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis.


The COMCASA will facilitate India to obtain critical defence technologies from the US, and access critical communication network to ensure inter-operability among the US and the Indian armed forces.



It will also allow the installation of high-security US communication equipment on defence platforms being sourced from the US, officials said. India and US have decided to work for New Delhi's NSG bid, Swaraj has said. "Given strong ties, India conveyed its expectation that US will not "act against" interests of Indians," the FM said on H1B visa issue. "We have decided to set up "hotlines" between External Affairs Minister and Defence Minister with their US counterparts," she said.  The issue of cross-border terrorism was also discussed during the talks.