Obama has delivered on his promise

US President Barack Obama has delivered on at least one promise that he made while visiting India in November 2010. The US administration has removed the names of nine organisations, mostly ISRO and DRDO subsidiaries, from the entities list and opened the doors for the export of high technology to India. The notification has moved India from a country group that required strict monitoring under the US Export Administration Regulations to the group comprising members of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), even though India is not a signatory to the MTCR.

While India values its strategic autonomy and recognises that each bilateral relationship is important in its own way, there can be no doubt that the India-US strategic partnership — more than any other — will shape the geo-political contours of the 21st century in a manner that enhances peace and stability the world over. The visit was eminently successful in taking the India-US strategic partnership to a much higher trajectory.

Perhaps the most important though understated aspect of the visit was the forward movement on almost all facets of defence cooperation. It also includes working together to maintain regional and international peace and stability under a cooperative security framework.

Hope for DAE

Hi-tech weapons and equipment will now be provided or offered to India by the US. Advanced dual-use technologies will give an edge to India over China, both in security-related and civilian sectors. The recent decision to transform the existing bilateral export control framework for high-tech exports has put an end to the discriminatory technology denial regimes which India was subjected to. The proposal to lift sanctions on ISRO, DRDO and Bharat Dynamics Limited is a welcome step forward and perhaps the department of atomic energy will also be taken off the Entities List soon.

Joint patrolling of the sea lanes (SLOCs) in the Indian Ocean is already being undertaken under the garb of joint naval exercises. Other military exercises have led to a broad understanding of each other’s military capabilities and many interoperability challenges have been ironed out. In future, joint military operations are possible if India’s national interests are at stake. Of course, there will be many caveats to such cooperation as it is not in India’s long-term interest to form an alliance with the US.

The proposal to undertake joint development of future weapons systems is also a welcome development as it will raise India’s technological threshold. However, no transfer of technology has occurred yet. Inevitably, doubts about the availability of future technological upgrades and reliability in supplies of spares will continue to linger in the Indian mind. The case for spares, which is pending with the labyrinthine US bureaucracy for long in respect of the AN-TPQ37 weapon locating radars, has left a bad taste. The notion that the US cannot be trusted to be a reliable supplier was not dispelled convincingly during Obama’s visit.

India’s reluctance to sign the CISMOA and BECA agreements will lead to denial of many items of on-board technology even while platforms are still offered and sold. The major criterion for the decision to sign or not to sign these agreements should be whether or not the operational capabilities of India’s armed forces will be adversely affected if major avionics and communications equipment is not supplied by the US. If India continues to shun certain equipment simply because the country does not wish to sign the CISMOA and BECA agreements, it might amount to a self goal in the long run.

Massive US conventional military aid to Pakistan militates against India’s strategic interests. While US compulsions and constraints in dealing with the failing Pakistani state are understandable, the supply of military equipment that cannot be used for counter-insurgency operations by any stretch of the imagination, will inevitably invite a strong Indian backlash.

Several issues listed for future cooperation in the joint statement point towards recognition of the adverse implications of China’s increasing assertiveness and the need to work in unison with the international community to uphold the unfettered use of the global commons like the sea lanes for trade, space and cyberspace. The US and India also view their strategic partnership as a hedging strategy against two major eventualities: should China behave irresponsibly in Asia and should China implode.

In either case, both countries will need reliable partners to restore order and harmony. The India-US strategic partnership can only gain additional momentum in the decades ahead though the road will undoubtedly be uphill and will be dotted with potholes.

Brig Gurmeet Kanwal (Retd) is Director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi

Courtesy: Deccan Herald, 07 February 2011

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/135429/obama-has-delivered-his-promise.html

(The views expressed in the article are that of the author and do not represent the views of the editorial committee or the centre for land warfare studies).