INDO-US Defence Cooperation

I don't think so. We prefer using our brains rather than heart. It is just a balancing act. Since the world is becoming multipolar, one has to look at self interest, as others do.

 

well, i mean we are much more pro-america than pakistan or arab countries! but if u think about it...there is a lot of recpect for america in india, plus the people to people ties help a lot!

 

India-US Strategic Dialogue on April 6

India and the US would hold the second round of their Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi on April 6 during which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would lead the American side, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has announced here.

"This time the meeting would take place in New Delhi on April 6. Secretary Hillary Clinton would travel to India for that meeting," Rao told reporters last evening at the end of her three-day US visit.

Rao, who was basically here for foreign office consultations, discussed on a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, besides the developments in Egypt.

She had a lengthy meeting with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, besides having called on Secretary Clinton at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

Rao briefed the US officials on the recent Indo-Pak talks in Bhutan and New Delhi's perspective on it.

Rao said she and Burns discussed the steps being taken by the two nations on implementation of the decisions reached during the India visit of US President Barack Obama in November last year.

They also prepared the ground work for the second Strategic Dialogue between the two countries.

"I had a very useful meeting with the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton," Rao said.

"This visit also afforded the opportunity to take stock of the regional and global situation. The situation in the region has been an object of focus in our discussion, previously also with the United States," she said.

India-US Strategic Dialogue on April 6

 

India, US will hold joint naval exercise

India and the United States will hold joint naval exercises off Okinawa coast and Japan will participate for the second year running.

To be held from April 2 to 10, the drill called the Malabar series of exercises, will include Japanese ships. The Okinawa coast has the highest concentration of US Marines in the region. For the second time in as many years, the joint exercises will see participation beyond those of India and the US. India had stopped doing so after China, in 2007, sent demarches to all the participants of a five-nation naval exercise held in the Bay of Bengal.

Japan’s tense relationship with China is too well-known. However, as the Japanese participation did not raise hackles of any country last year, India decided to once again go ahead with the drill involvingJapan which will be represented by the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force to participate.

Japan’s request to participate in the Okinawa exercises comes in the wake of its interest in developing a healthy defence cooperative arrangement with India with which it has no security issues unlike China. Rather than individually dealing with global security challenges such as access to seas, outer space and cyber space, Japan perhaps, would like to partner with India and US in maritime co-operation.

For India too, getting Japan on board will be beneficial. Entering into a closer bilateral security relationship would help India get access to platforms and technologies that Japan had made its priorities in the defence arena.

The China barb against the joint exercises came in 2007 after which the attempt to institutionalise a US allies-plus India naval exercises was abandoned. The 2007 Malabar series in the Bay of Bengal was a massive exercise with the participation of the navies of India, the US, Singapore, Australia and Japan.

India, US will hold joint naval exercise

 

Just like US consider that China with them r going to be shape the 21st century.

The world politics is completely tangled with economics,this is a case where even u love to see ur adversaries survive,India,China and US r all part of this game.

Frankly I dont buy the part that US weighs India more than China ,after all political influence matter more than friendship(which India is still not).

US currently is not also acting in our favour in regards of Pakistan,so expecting all we love is America attitude in Indian political circles will be just surprising.

US is only cashing due to the fear generated by the assertiveness of China in Asia,and I think India would also pitch in here and bargain for the best buy it can get,not for America's favour,but for our own favour.

 

US push for nuclear club entry

Washington, Feb. 16: Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao yesterday obtained a commitment from the Obama administration that India and the US will together “devise a road map for simultaneous movement” on New Delhi’s full membership of four multilateral export control regimes, the next logical step towards global recognition of India as a nuclear weapons state and an emerging military power.

The four multilateral export control regimes from which India is excluded are: the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement.

Rao obtained the important commitment at separate meetings here with the under secretary of state for arms control and international security, Ellen Tauscher, and the under secretary of commerce for export administration and bureau of industry and security, Eric Hirschhorn.

The commitment is a slap in the face for Pakistan, which has mounted a strident campaign at the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva against India’s admission to these multilateral organisations.

“Apart from undermining the validity and security of the international non-proliferation regime,” India’s admission to the four export control regimes “shall further destabilise security in South Asia,” Zamir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, told the conference a few days ago revving up an anti-India campaign.

Akram held out a threat of blackmail against the international community on this issue by warning that “as a consequence (of India’s membership of these regimes) Pakistan will be forced to ensure the credibility of its (nuclear) deterrence.”

The foreign secretary’s breakthrough here yesterday is important in the context of recent concern in world capitals that Pakistan is amassing nuclear weapons at a pace faster than any other country and has now overtaken Britain and France in the size of its arsenal.

The commitment given to Rao means the US is not willing to be blackmailed or arm-twisted by Islamabad on this issue unlike in the case of Afghanistan or continued support to its corrupt and double-dealing governments on the specious plea that such regimes are the only guarantee that radical Islamists do not overrun Pakistan.

President Barack Obama had endorsed India’s membership of the four multilateral export control regimes during his visit to New Delhi in November 2010, but the endorsement came with a string of conditions, most of them at the insistence of the non-proliferationists who are all over his administration.

In a joint statement with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Obama had said US support for New Delhi on this issue would be “commensurate with India’s non-proliferation record and commitment to abide by multilateral export control standards” and that Washington would promote India’s case “in a phased manner” in consultation with “regime members to encourage the evolution of regime membership criteria, consistent with maintaining the core principles of these regimes, as the Government of India takes steps towards the full adoption of the regimes’ export control requirements to reflect its prospective membership, with both processes moving forward together”.

In addition, while being specifically conditional that “India should qualify for membership in the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement according to existing requirements once it imposes export controls over all items on these regimes’ control lists”, the joint statement was equivocal on New Delhi’s entry into the NSG and the MTCR.

South Block was unhappy about such a formulation in the joint statement, but chose not to make an issue of it then in order for Obama’s passage through India to be free of bumps and had decided that it could be effectively taken up by the foreign secretary later.

Rao was encouraged in this critical mission during preparations for her visit here when Hirschhorn’s office removed nine Indian defence and space companies from its “Entity List” requiring export licence requirements that have been in place since the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998.

A January 25 notification also ended the bracketing of India along with China and Pakistan in US “Export Administration Regulations” and placed New Delhi along with MTCR members, altogether removing export licence requirements in key areas of strategic cooperation.

A 15-minute meeting between the foreign secretary and Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, yesterday proved to be the turning point in Rao’s mission and sent the right political message down the ranks of the Obama administration. Rao’s counterpart in the US administration is the under secretary of state for political affairs, William Burns, but her meeting at the cabinet level with Clinton was evidence of the foreign secretary’s standing in Washington.

During the first Indo-US strategic dialogue here last year when Obama went to the state department to attend a reception for external affairs minister S.M. Krishna, the US President praised Rao’s work in his speech.

Yesterday, Burns spent half of his entire working day with Rao, first at a structured two-hour meeting with her followed by a 90-minute working lunch with the Indian delegation and then accompanied her to see Clinton.

Armed with a political signal of support from Clinton, Rao met Tauscher as a follow-up to her meeting with Hirschhorn. The foreign secretary had anticipated the course of events during the day on the road map for India’s entry into multilateral export control regimes because she had brought along D.B. Venkatesh Varma, South Block’s joint secretary for disarmament and international security affairs.

Varma, who was the midwife for approval of the Indo-US nuclear deal by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the subsequent NSG exemption for nuclear trade with India, immediately went into a huddle with the assistant secretary of state for verification, arms control and compliance, Rose Gottemoeller. At this meeting, a basic framework for the road map for Indian entry into the four multilateral regimes was worked out in time for Rao to announce it at a news conference at the end of her visit.

The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Frontpage | US push for nuclear club entry

 

Not quite. Right from the 1950s India has tried to pursue a policy which is independent and intrinsic to India. That was the essence of India's Non-Aligned policy in the bi-polar world of the Cold War era. Though there is only one (purported) "Super Power" now, the world now is more multi-polar than it ever was. And India is not a non-player in this scenario. Any partnership that India pursue with the USA will be in furtherance of that agenda, not a US agenda.

 

U.S. plans to boost defence, economic ties with India

Washington: The U.S. plans to boost its ties with India in two key areas of defence and economic partnership as a follow up to President Barack Obama's November visit to India, according to a senior administration official.

The United States plans to capitalise on the opportunities offered by the "notable results of the President's trip" in the weeks and months to come, Geoffrey Pyatt, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South Asia said Friday at the

Emerging India Summit at Emory University in Atlanta.

"The challenge now before us is to define an agenda for both governments that capitalises on what we have achieved and meets the ambitious vision agreed by" Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said speaking on "The Regional and Global Impact of the US-India Strategic Partnership".

Describing defence cooperation as "a critical cornerstone of the bilateral relationship" Pyatt said with India expected to spend nearly $45 billion on military modernisation over the next five years, the US welcomed opportunities to offer India superior technology and further deepen their defence cooperation.

He noted two American aircraft, the F/A 18 Super Hornet and F-16IN Viper, are among the contenders in the competition to provide Indian Air Force 126 frontline Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft, or MMRCA.

"The U.S. proposals will dramatically enhance India's own aerospace industrial base and defence capabilities and demonstrate our commitment to share with India cutting edge technologies - including the only operationally-mature AESA radar," Pyatt suggested.

The U.S. was also actively working to elevate its government-to-government economic partnership with India to be commensurate with their robust global strategic partnership.

"The challenge for us in Washington and New Delhi is to keep pace with the ambition and velocity of our private sector colleagues in New York and Mumbai - or Ahmedabad and Atlanta!" Pyatt said citing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"U.S.-India economic cooperation has been a driver of our transformed bilateral relationship, and in many ways is the
decisive factor behind India's changing place in the international system," he said.

"With the fulcrum of geopolitics shifting quickly to Asia, India plays an increasingly critical role in US strategy," Pyatt said. "Indeed, amid the democratic transformation of Egypt and the continuing unrest in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen, India's value as an anchor of democratic stability in the Indian Ocean region has only increased."

U.S. plans to boost defence, economic ties with India - Business news

 

Indo-US Defence Policy Group meeting begins in Washington

The two-day Indo-US Defence Policy Group meeting began in Washington on Thursday to discuss the bilateral ties and review the situation in the region in particular in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Defence secretary Pradeep Kumar led the 9-member Indian delegation, while the US side is led by Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defence for policy affairs.

During the meeting, the two sides would review the defence ties and discuss issues including the situation in the region in particular in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Indian side is likely to raise the issue of procurement of M-777 ULH from the US through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route for the artillery, which has not inducted a new gun for the last 25 years.

Indian side is also likely to discuss the acquisition of 10 C-17 heavylift transport aircraft and Javeline Missiles from the US through the FMS route.

The American side is expected to push the case of its two fighter aircraft in race for Indian Air Force's 126 multi-role combat aircraft deal.

The meeting between two sides comes ahead of six-day visit of Army Chief General VK Singh starting Monday.

In the last five years, defence relations have been expanding between the two countries under the New Framework for US-India Defence Relations.

The US undertakes the highest number of joint exercises with India amongst all nations that includes the navy-to-navy Malabar and SALVEX, army-to-army Yudhabhyas and aerial 'Cope-India' exercises.

Indo-US Defence Policy Group meeting begins in Washington - India - DNA

 

US urges India to sign CISMOA to access to defence technology

US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer says that it is in India’s strategic interest to sign the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) as it will get access to advanced technology. He was replying to questions on removal of certain critical technologies on the C-130J by the US in absence of CISMOA with India.

“We think that it is in India’s strategic interest (if it decides to sign the agreement). I think it not only brings us closer on defence issues… it will also provide it access to some of the best technologies in the world,â€￾ he said.

India has in the recent past made it clear to the US that it is in no hurry to sign CISMOA. CISMOA enables installation of American communication systems on US-made military aircraft that increases the inter-operability of the two forces. India prefers to integrate alternatives to CISMOA specific equipment. CISMOA clause is backfiring on US, as it is not able to realize full potential of the multi billion dollar deals with India.

 

Re: US urges India to sign CISMOA to access to defence technology

There should not any conditions attached to arms sales to India. Plain and simple. The sooner US understands it will be better for them, the defense purchase from India is huge and they will miss out a lot financially.

 

Re: US urges India to sign CISMOA to access to defence technology

yeha i agree but this CISMOA thing is symbolic for them...as they want india to be a close us ally!

 

Re: US urges India to sign CISMOA to access to defence technology

but without cismoa we don't have critical tech. and it mean f-16 and f-18 are out of race