New Delhi: India and Finland today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance their defence cooperation, on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue event here.

India’s Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar and Finland Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary Jukka Juusti signed the agreement to further defence cooperation between the two nations.

“The MoU on co-operation in the field of production, procurement, research and development of defence-related equipment and industrial cooperation has been inked on the sidelines of Raisina Dialogue 2020,” a Ministry of Defence statement said.

“Under the broad ambit of the MoU, cooperation between Finnish companies and Indian Defence Public Sector Undertakings could be explored.”

A draft MoU between the two countries in the field of defence cooperation amongst others was under discussion since the DefExpo 2018 and has now been formalised in the run up to DefExpo 2020, to be held in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow between Feb. 5 and 9.

In 2019, Juusti had led a delegation to AeroIndia in Bengaluru and post his visit, the Permanent Secretary had evinced their interest to participate in the ‘Make in India‘ vision and formalise an arrangement for defence industrial cooperation through an MoU.

On Feb. 13, 2016, Prime Minister of Finland Juha Sipila had bilateral discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to India for the inauguration of the ‘Make in India’ week.

On Apr. 17, 2018, Modi held a bilateral meeting with Sipila during the first India-Nordic Summit in Stockholm, Sweden. Also, a delegation from Finland had visited India between Nov. 29 and Dec. 2, 2018 to explore new business opportunities for Finnish companies.