Ajai Shukla
Philadelphia (US)
Business Standard, 13th April 16
Starting his three-day visit to India in Goa on Monday, US
Defence Secretary Ashton Carter declared that his Indian counterpart, Manohar
Parrikar, is “one of the most important defence ministers in the world for me
to interact with.”
The reason for this was illustrated on Tuesday, when the two
announced a breakthrough logistics agreement; new, high-level maritime
dialogue; cooperation on submarines and tracking commercial shipping in the
Indian Ocean, and a significant expansion of high-technology defence cooperation.
After delegation talks in New Delhi, Carter and Parrikar
announced a breakthrough in negotiating three “foundational agreements” that
Washington has long pressed for to facilitate operational and technological
cooperation.
They announced an “in principle agreement to conclude a
Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), and to continue working
toward other facilitating agreements to enhance military cooperation and
technology transfer.”
The India-specific LEMOA, will allow American and Indian
military units to use facilities in each others’ bases, subject to mutual
agreement in each instance.
As Business Standard has reported, another agreement --- Communications
and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) --- is close to finalisation.
This would allow the US to supply India with highly secure radio equipment. Some
work remains on a third agreement, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement
for Geospatial Information and Services Cooperation (BECA), which relates to
digital mapping.
In a strategic signal that will be noted in Bejing, the two
ministers reaffirmed support for “freedom of navigation and over flight
throughout the region, including in the South China Sea”. Indicating the
growing regional consensus against China’s aggressive moves to control these
waters, they “emphasized their commitment to working together and with other
nations to ensure the security and stability that have been beneficial to the
Asia-Pacific for decades.”
Such intent had also been signaled in the “India-US Joint
Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region” that President
Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed in January 2015, Carter
and Parrikar added teeth to that by announcing a bilateral Maritime Security
Dialogue, which would involve both sides’ defence and foreign ministries.
For the first time, the US --- a global leader in submarine
warfare --- agreed to work with India in this field. The joint statement
“agreed to commence navy-to-navy discussions on submarine safety and
anti-submarine warfare.”
Intriguingly, given the navy’s control over Indian Ocean
shipping lanes, and over the strategic choke points at Hormuz and Malacca, the
two sides “reaffirmed their desire to expeditiously conclude a ‘white shipping’
technical arrangement to improve data sharing on commercial shipping traffic.
This would enhance India’s ability to monitor vessels in these waters.
The two sides also expanded the scope of the Defence
Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), by announcing joint development of two
projects in addition to the six projects already under way.
The two sides “agreed to initiate two new DTTI pathfinder
projects on Digital Helmet Mounted Displays and the Joint Biological Tactical
Detection System.”
Deepening high-technology cooperation, Carter and Parrikar also
announced four “government-to-government science projects” on: high energy
lasers, cognitive tools for target detection, small intelligent unmanned aerial
systems, and the management of blast and blunt traumatic brain injuries.
They also agreed to deepen cooperation on two major DTTI
projects already under way: one on jet engine technology (which India hopes to
use in its Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft), and another on aircraft carrier
design (for India’s second indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vishal). An
“information exchange annex (IEA) was announced, which would allow the sharing
of data about aircraft carriers.
In a measure that will go down well with the American public,
India has begun assisting the Pentagon in locating the remains of US pilots who
crashed in the Eastern Himalayas during World War II, whilst airlifting
supplies from Assam to Chinese armies that were fighting the Japanese. After years
of reluctance to allow US servicemen into sensitive Arunachal Pradesh, Parrikar
has committed India’s assistance.
In Delhi, Carter also presided over the repatriation ceremony of
an American pilot’s remains from India to the US. He also met Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
Was not the earlier Govt refused to sign this agreement. It is also not clear that what amendments have been made to original proposal.
ReplyDeleteI have always been staunchly pro-US, but I dont want India to sign such agreements. That's because we're a bunch of idiots who, because we can talk the ears off a mouse, think we're very smart. Please understand the Americans are a lot smarter than we are. The Americans are very persistent as far as India is concerned. They've been working on us for 35-years and we have been giving in - slowly, but steadily. For old timers like myself it is impossible to grasp how much progress the US has made, while letting us believe we're in charge.
ReplyDeleteThe DefLog agreements sound harmless, but the US camel has been getting closer and closer to our tent, and now has its nose under.
The benefits to the US are considerable because its a global power. What are the benefits to us? Do we need refueling stations in Hawaii or the China Seas? Do we need to replenish supplies and ammo magazines? Obviously not.
I know Ajai and other youngsters will say I am stuck in the post-colonial Nehruvian mode with regard to America.But I love America and think its the greatest nation in the world. That doesn't mean I think our engagement and soon-to-come marriage to America is in our interests.