Rajnath Talks To The US Acting Defense Minister

Rajnath talks to the US acting defense minister discusses issues related to strategic cooperation.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday held talks with the caretaker Defense Minister Christopher C. Miller and discussed issues related to strategic cooperation between the two countries.

After a telephonic conversation between the two leaders, Singh said that the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) between the two countries in October is a strong indication of the future direction of defense cooperation.

“I spoke to the acting US Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller over the phone.” The Indo-US partnership in defense has matured strategically in the last decade.

Rajnath Singh said that 2020 is a historic year in terms of the India-US defense relationship.

He said, having a BECA agreement is a strong indication of our future direction of high-level cooperation for capacity up-gradation. Officials said that issues of strategic cooperation were also discussed during this interaction.

In June 2016, the US gave India the status of a major defense partner. The aim was to increase defense trade and technology exchange with India to the level of its close allies.

There will be discussed before allowing postal ballots for NRIs

The government has not yet taken any decision on whether to allow eligible NRIs to use postal ballots for voting as extensive consultations with all stakeholders will be required before a final decision is taken in this regard.

Sources gave this information on Tuesday.

Election Commission’s proposal to amend the rules to allow overseas Indians, whose names are in the electoral rolls in India, to vote through postal ballots.

This is still at the level of officials and political parties in this regard Discussion is yet to be done.

The Election Commission has proposed to the government to extend the Electronic Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) facility to eligible overseas Indian voters.

This facility is currently available to military personnel.

On 27 November, the Election Commission said in a letter to the legislative secretary in the Law Ministry that the success of ETPBS among military personnel is now confident that this facility can be provided to migrant voters as well.

The commission said that it is technically and administratively ready to extend this facility in the assembly elections in Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry.