Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'India deepens defence ties with the U.S.' that was published in Newsband

India deepens defence ties with the U.S.

The India-U.S. defence relationship has been given a significant boost after the inaugural 2+2 Dialogue in Delhi: the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), “hotlines” between the Defence and Foreign Ministers of both countries. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met their US counterpart Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis. This was an historical moment.

India has been purchasing a large amount of U.S. defence hardware. U.S. has decided to include India in the top tier of countries entitled to Strategic Trade Authorisation (STA-1). Apart from the defence agreements, they discussed trade issues, cooperation on fighting terrorism, advancing “a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region” and promoting sustainable “debt-financing” in the region.

The 2+2 discussions brought much-needed focus on the India-U.S. relationship after months of drift and occasional discord. But no public statement was made on India’s investment in the Chabahar port and about India receiving a waiver to purchase Russian hardware. India expects that the Trump administration will come through on waiving sanctions and being more flexible on trade issues.

China’s reactions were interesting. According to a Chinese Magazine, “From a long-term perspective,...it’s unlikely to have any significant impact on the regional security layout and strategic balance.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry described the 2+2 dialogue as an exercise of “normal bilateral relations between the two sides.” It hopes that in this process India and US will do more to regional peace and regional stability.

However, China acknowledges that in recent years, U.S. and India have accelerated military cooperation, deepened defence relations, and conducted exchanges and coordination such as procurement and joint development of arms, technology transfer, joint exercise and training, and counter-terrorism operations. The scale of the US-India joint military exercises has been constantly expanding and involved such countries as Japan, Australia, and the Philippines, continuously amplifying the scope of exchanges.

China points to Pentagon’s “relatively weak” presence in the Indian Ocean as the driver of its deeper engagement with India. On the contrary, by working out a military relationship with the U.S., India aspires to lower its dependence on Russia-made weapons, and increase its competitive advantage over Pakistan.

As per Chines view, on the diplomatic platform, India wants “to enhance its international status and influence and gain support from the U.S. in international affairs such as becoming a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.” Besides close ties with Washington can be used as “a bargaining chip to gain a dominant position in the relationships with Russia, China, Japan, and other countries.