By Gautam Datt, India Today
As China views Washington's new military strategy focused on the Asia-Pacific with suspicion, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday identified India as the "linchpin" in its latest game plan in which the region will be packed with more forces.
Panetta, who is on the last leg
of his significant Asia tour which has evoked
great interest because of the new strategic vision unveiled recently,
elaborated on the Barack Obama administration's military rebalancing policy
that, he said, hinged on five principles. They are: maintenance of agile,
flexible and deployable force, developing ability to take part and win two
conflicts at a time, invest heavily in cyber security, space and special
forces, focusing on North Korea
and West Asia and maintain presence from Latin America, Africa, Indian Ocean to
Europe.
Identifying New
Delhi as a key partner, Panetta said Washington will seek to transfer
sophisticated military equipment to the Indian armed forces and steps were
being taken to cut bureaucratic red tape that comes in the way of exchange of
hi-tech weapons and systems.
Panetta said he has asked deputy
secretary Ash Carter to lead efforts in the Pentagon to ease rules and hoped
that India,
too, would take similar measures to amend its rules. The new push being given
to the re-balancing policy also meant that the US was no more pressing India to
sign key pacts such as the Communication Interoperability and Security
memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) and agreement for geo-spatial cooperation that
were earlier regarded as foundation agreements for strengthening Indo-US
defence cooperation.
India was opposed to these pacts as
it had found its provisions intrusive. The US defence secretary has now
clarified that these would not come in the way of taking military ties to a new
level.
"We have also increased our
defence relationship from virtually nothing early in the last decade to sales
worth over $ 8 billion today," he said emphasising the US is determined to
sell whatever it can to India.
Panetta said the Obama
administration "is hard at work on export control reforms in cooperation
with Congress in order to improve our ability to deliver the best technologies
even more quickly".
Defence Minister A. K. Antony,
who had detailed discussions with his US
counterpart, conveyed India's
position on the South China Sea where China is flexing its muscles. Antony told Panetta that India supports unhindered freedom
of navigation in international waters for all.
He also had a word of caution on
the new US
policy for the region. Antony said that the
multilateral security architecture in the Asia-Pacific should be strengthened
and advised that Washington
should move at a pace comfortable to all countries.
Panetta, who delivered a lecture
at Institute of Defence
Studies and Analysis, a government think-tank, after wrapping
up meetings in South Block, said the new US
initiative meant Washington
was not looking for military bases in the region. It wants to make friendly
countries more capable by giving them the latest technology so that they can
maintain peace.
He also clarified that increasing
the strength of forces in the Pacific meant positioning six US aircraft carriers
in the region out of the existing fleet of 11. It would also have a rotational
policy for the deployment of marines who will be operating from traditional
bases in South Korea, Japan, Phillipines and Australia.
In his discussion with Indian
interlocutors, emphasis was also given on the situation in Afghanistan and relations with Pakistan.
Panetta said he had urged the Indian leadership to continue with additional
support to Afghanistan
through trade and investment, reconstruction and help for security forces.
The US
said that its relationship with Pakistan
was complicated but it will continue to engage Islamabad. He defended the drone attacks in
FATA claiming the US
was defending its own sovereignty.
No comments:
Post a Comment