The recent visit of US defence secretary Ashton Carter seeks to build on the burgeoning technology and trade ties with India which has reached the order of about $9 billion in the past decade. That is eye-catching enough (not unlike the figure notched up in respect of India’s defence purchases from Israel, a close ally of the US, in an equivalent time framework). But, conceptually, two other ideas have to be factored in so as to understand the potential and the range that the defence partnership between the two countries may allow.
These may even appear to be mutually contradictory unless the Modi government completely turns India’s relations with America on its head.
The first notion is that of a shared “vision” between India and the US for the Asia-Pacific which was underscored when President Obama was in New Delhi last January. This was a thinly veiled reference to India being brought into the American ambit of a re-balancing in Asia, an understated way of saying that a sharp eye must be kept on whether China’s rise will be a peaceful one or not. So, a wary eye is needed on that score.
The second notion is the question which pertains to what extent the US will be ready to share its military technology with India. Washington is already thought to be less than enthusiastic about India’s DRDO wanting to partner GE on the F-414 engine for Tejas, this country’s light combat aircraft.
In some measure, US reluctance to offer India its latest military technology will impact the quality of the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative that was a key component of the Obama visit, and which Mr Carter sought to push along when he was here. So, DTTI — visualising co-production — is likely to have a lower-level start than India might wish for when it proposes to share a “vision” with the US regarding the Chinese theatre. From the American perspective, the situation is apt to change only if India inks three “foundational” agreements with the US that would permit a high-level association in exchanging classified information, as well as logistics and geo-spatial cooperation.
Even a preliminary discussion on these had attracted considerable controversy in India when the then defence minister, Pranab Mukherjee, had signed a defence framework agreement with the US in 2005 — when India was seeking proximity with Washington in the run-up to the signing of the civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States — and New Delhi stepped back. The Modi government’s understanding of these issues will naturally be under watch, and may be clouded by the fact that America is also a very close military ally of Pakistan.
