The United States said Tuesday an end to export restrictions for India's defence and space industries would help ramp up military trade with the South Asian country.
US Secretary of State for Commerce Gary Locke said US officials would hold talks Wednesday with state-run Indian firms which were previously on a so-called US "entities list" which barred them from importing critical technologies.
Nine Indian defence and space research firms were unshackled last month from the restrictions - imposed as a penalty on India for its 1998 nuclear tests.
"These are the first steps to relax US export partnership as we are eager to help India meet its ambitious goals" of self-reliance, Locke said in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.
"We are bringing in some of the top US technology companies and we will be having discussions. We believe this is a signal of better and stronger co-operation for years to come," Locke told reporters.
Sixty-three US defence and aeronautical firms are among 675 companies from 45 countries participating in South Asia's largest airshow which kicks off on Wednesday in Bangalore.
The groups removed from the US blacklist included the Indian Space Research Organisation, which leads India's space programme, and the weapon-designing Defence Research and Development Organisation.
US President Barack Obama announced on a visit to India last November that he was easing the restrictions. US-based Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp are vying for a $12-billion dollar Indian contract for 126 warjets and top officials accompanying Locke said the fighter jets would be fitted with the latest US technology.
"We have agreed to an unprecedented level of technology transfer to India and we can go even further," said Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs.
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