The all-important visit, prior to Prime Minister Modi’s departure for Washington later this month, was the visit of the US Defence Secretary to New Delhi. The relationship between the two countries has benefited much with Quad in place. The commitment of both nations to the Indo-Pacific region, commonality in threat perceptions of the growing Chinese power plays has led to both countries putting on the backburner their differences on other issues.
The Indian stance on the Ukraine War is definitely an irritant for the USA, however, over a period of time the Americans have learnt to respect India’s sovereign decision-making rights. The tone of post 9/11 Bush doctrine, “if you are not with us, you are with the terrorists,” has given way to saner relationship defined by accommodating divergent approaches between the two biggest democracies, globally.
Austin’s Tweets prior to the visit communicated the areas of focus. “I’m returning to India to meet with key leaders for discussions about strengthening our Major Defense Partnership.”
“Together, we’re advancing a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he added.”
An US Congressional Committee has also pushed for including India in the NATO plus 5 grouping, which would be a momentous step with geo strategic implementations according to the body.
However, the Indian Deputy National Security Advisor said at the Shangri la Dialogue that, “India does not believe in partnering in military alliances. We are, however, a partner for many countries including in the military and defence field”.
A PIB release provides an insight into the talks held. According to the release, “The two Ministers explored ways of building resilient supply chains. Both sides will identify opportunities for co-development of new technologies and co-production of existing & new systems and facilitate increased collaboration between defence start-up ecosystems of the two countries. Towards these objectives, they concluded a roadmap for US-India Defence Industrial Cooperation which shall guide the policy direction for the next few years.”
An US Department of Defence release adds, “The Secretary and his counterparts also discussed the growing importance of defense innovation and cooperation in emerging domains such as space, cyberspace, and artificial intelligence. They praised the recent launch of a new Advanced Domains Defense Dialogue and committed to expanding the scope of bilateral defense cooperation to encompass all domains. They also welcomed the establishment of the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X), a new initiative to advance cutting-edge technology cooperation. The initiative, which will be launched by the U.S.-India Business Council on June 21, is designed to complement existing government-to-government collaboration by promoting innovative partnerships between U.S. and Indian companies, investors, start-up accelerators, and academic research institutions.
Certain issues on which no information has been put out is the progress made on General Electric’s manufacturing of jet engines in India. Possibly, a decision regarding the F414 engines will be made public during the visit of the Indian PM to the US, later this month. These are expected to power Tejas Mk 2. The roadmap for US-India Defence Industrial Cooperation should take care of the issue.
At Singapore Austin did also make an emphatic statement that Chinese “coercion and bullying” of US allies and partners will not be accepted.”
As far as US views for a NATO in this region, Austin set aside all speculations and said, ”We are absolutely not trying to establish a NATO in the Indo-Pacific. We continue to work with like-minded countries to ensure the region remains free and open so that commerce can prosper and ideas can continue to be exchanged,” Viewed objectively, Indian participation in Quad was on the basis of the grouping being non-strategic. An association with NATO could cross a line that India is not too keen to take in its stride, at this stage.
The bigger show and other areas of convergence between the two nations will apparently have to await the Indian PM’s visit to the US.
Brig SK Chatterji (Retd)
Editor Bharatshakti.in
