New York:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today invited US firms to participate in its defence industry.
After a 90-minute meeting with President Obama, Mr Modi said, "Invite US defence firms to participate in our defence industry."
India has recently raised the cap on foreign investment in the defence sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
India and the US have today also decided to renew for another 10 years, a defence pact that ends next year, an external affairs ministry official said after the Modi-Obama meeting.
MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted that the pact, known as the Framework Agreement for defence cooperation would be extended for a further 10 years.
The agreement guides the Indo-US military dialogue. It was signed in 2005 by then Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld.
The agreement envisages mutually beneficial defence cooperation between the two countries through security dialogue, service-level exchanges, defence exercises and defence trade and technology collaboration.
The renewal of the pact was discussed at a meeting between Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and his American counterpart Chuck Hagel last month in New Delhi.
Both sides had decided to take steps to extend the pact besides agreeing to enhance cooperation in joint production and development of defence equipment.
The US has been pushing defence deals with India worth over Rs 20,000 crore, including the sale of Apache attack choppers, Chinook heavylift helicopters and the Javelin anti-tank guided missiles.