By C. Raja Mohan
In the new security context, India and the US should deepen their defence
cooperation
United States Defence Secretary
Leon Panetta’s visit to Delhi
underlines the sea change in the Asian security environment and the new imperatives
for deepening strategic cooperation between the two countries. Although India and the US launched defence cooperation in
the middle of the last decade, its full potential for security cooperation
remains unrealised. To be sure, America
has become an important supplier of arms to India. The armed forces of the two
countries have more bilateral military exercises with each other than with any
other country. Yet there is no denying the widespread sense that the momentum
in bilateral defence relations has begun to lose steam.
The US
has been too narrowly focused on getting India to sign the so-called
foundational agreements. These include the Logistics Supply Agreement (LSA),
the Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA),
and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA).
If Delhi
has been unable to lend political direction to the defence exchanges with the US, bureaucratic inertia in the Pentagon
prevents Washington
from customising a unique partnership with South Block. But the current global
strategic context facing the two countries is vastly different from the
situation in 2005, when Delhi and Washington signed the
framework agreement for defence cooperation.
For one, there is a financial
imperative that demands India
and the US
to re-evaluate the current premises of defence cooperation. Delhi, which stares
at lower economic growth rates in the coming years and the implications of the
recent depreciation of the rupee, needs to get a better defence bang for its
buck, develop a more purposeful and cost-conscious approach to military
modernisation, and appreciate the importance of long-term defence industrial
cooperation with the US.
Washington’s defence planners are
confronted, for the first time in decades, with a financial constraint on
American national security strategy. The US
needs long-term partnerships with countries like India to maintain its defence
industrial base as fiscal austerity and the rising cost of arms production bite
the Pentagon.
The US
faced few threats to its primacy in Asia a
decade ago. Today, America
finds itself exhausted after two prolonged land wars to India’s west
and challenged by the rapid rise of Chinese power to our east. As an anxious
Asia looks to the US to
restore the balance of power, Washington
is scrambling to reinforce its military presence in the Western Pacific. At the
annual Shangri-La conference in Singapore
over the weekend, Panetta outlined the US
plans to deploy more forces in Asia and
develop a new doctrine to cope with the assertion of Chinese military power.
Ten years ago, Delhi had every reason to believe its
external security environment was a benign one. Today India must cope with the prospects of greater
turbulence on its north-western frontiers amidst the downsizing of
international military presence in Afghanistan
and of the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul
with the support of the Pakistan
army. Towards its north and east, India
will have to deal with the consequences of rising Chinese military power, and
to its south, the growing presence of Beijing’s
naval power. Delhi can no longer ignore the
widening power gap with Beijing.
China’s GDP is nearly four
times that of India’s and China’s official figure for military
expenditure, at more than $100 billion, is more than three times that of India’s.
As China’s
rise produces a lasting power shift in Asia as well as the Pacific and Indian Oceans,
all nations, big and small, are trying to expand and deepen defence
relationships with partners old and new. Neither the world’s sole superpower,
the US, nor Asia’s lone
ranger, India,
can bet on achieving their security objectives on the basis of their own
national strength.
As they survey the strategic
turbulence in Asia and its waters, three
imperatives of security cooperation present themselves to Panetta and his
Indian interlocutors. First, India
and the US
must move away from a buyer-seller relationship on arms transfers and lay the
basis for greater defence industrial collaboration, co-production of weapons
systems and joint research in advanced areas.
Second, Delhi
and Washington have a shared interest in
stabilising Afghanistan
as its armed forces take responsibility for the security of their nation. Until
recently, the US had relied
on the Pakistan army to
secure its objectives in Afghanistan;
today Washington has begun to acknowledge Rawalpindi as a major obstacle to its goals in Afghanistan. India and the US
must find ways to coordinate their policies in Afghanistan and institutionalise
consultations on the security situation there. Delhi
and Washington also have big stakes in nudging
Pakistan
towards the path of political moderation, economic modernisation and regional
integration.
Three, as Asia’s waters become
the lifeline for the world’s trade and prosperity, India
and the US
agree on the importance of working together on maritime security. But they are
yet to devise a framework for operational cooperation in the waters of the
Indian and Pacific
Oceans.
Finally, India and the US
have a common interest in constructing a stable balance of power in Asia. Delhi and Washington must now
translate their political declarations into credible security cooperation in
the region.
Three and a half years ago, the
Obama administration declared the centrality of Pakistan
in stabilising Afghanistan
and proclaimed a “China-first” policy in Asia.
India
objected to both the propositions. Much has happened since then to turn those
American premises on their head. Washington is
a lot more realistic now and is eager to deepen the defence partnership with India. As
political India wakes up to a more complex security environment enveloping it,
Delhi needs to demonstrate greater pragmatism in enhancing cooperation with
Washington.
The writer is a distinguished
fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, Delhi
Courtesy:
Indian Express
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