INDIA, AMERICA AT MILITARY ALTAR

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INDIA, AMERICA AT MILITARY ALTAR

 

FROM SUJAN DUTTA

 

New Delhi, Dec. 4:

India and the US will resume joint military exercises and sign "in

the very near future" the general security of military information

agreement, defence policy planners of the two countries have decided.

 

The agreement lays down that visiting military officers of both

sides should ensure confidentiality of information on military

systems and that neither side should reveal to a third country

bilateral military information. Delhi's reluctance to sign the pact

for almost a decade was one of the impediments to US military sales

to India.

 

An immediate consequence of the two-day Indo-US Defence Policy Group

meeting that ended here today is Washington's decision to allow

seven companies to sell to India equipment that were either frozen

or impounded under the post-Pokhran II sanctions. The US has also

invited Indian military representatives to briefings on its National

Missile Defence System.

 

The policy group, meeting for only the third time since it was

formed in 1996, has laid out a roadmap for military-to-military

cooperation, put in place inter-services groups and technical

committees that will monitor and execute technology sales and

transfers, exercises and training programmes.

 

The group is the apex body for bilateral military ties. It is co-

chaired by the Indian defence secretary and the US under-secretary

for defence policy. A Joint Technical Group that will dwell on

military sales and technical cooperation; a Military Cooperation

Group that will, among other issues, dwell on the agreement; and

Executive Steering Groups of the two armies, navies and air forces

will meet separately in the first quarter of next year, ahead of the

next policy group sitting in May 2002.

 

"Both delegations reviewed the ongoing defence cooperation between

India and the US. They committed themselves to increasing

substantially the pace of the high-level policy dialogue, military-

to-military exchanges and other joint activities," defence secretary

Yogendra Narain and US undersecretary Douglas Feith said in a joint

statement.

 

Feith said one of the sessions in the meeting discussed the

agreement. The US normally insists on signing the agreement with

countries with which it has strategic military ties that govern

technology sales and other joint programmes.

 

"We did have a discussion on that understanding. This is an

agreement that should be complete in very short order. I expect it

to be signed in the very near future," Feith said.

 

The pact will allow India easier access to US military technologies.

The information agreement also governs acquisition of military

knowhow from private US companies.

 

A reservation that India has so far had in signing the agreement has

been on the definition of information that could be

called "military". It has been argued that the agreement does not

specify the type of military information but makes it obligatory for

a signatory country to detail the procedure followed to keep

information secure.

 

But in July this year, when Jaswant Singh was defence minister,

India had decided to work towards signing the agreement. Sources

said the actual signing could take place in the first quarter of

next year.

 

"It (the policy group sitting) has been a very useful meeting that

has further cemented our defence and strategic relations. We have

exchanged views on strategic objectives, reviewed the security

situation in the region and have gone into details on steps to

counter terrorism. We have reached an amicable solution on

acquisition on certain weapon systems,"Narain said. He refused to go

public with details of the weapon systems.

 

The joint statement said it had also been decided to establish a

separate Security Cooperation Group to manage the defence supply

relationship. The US had agreed to hasten the review of India's

acquisition priorities — for which licences will be issued to seven

US companies — for engines and systems for Light Combat Aircraft,

radars, multi-mission maritime aircraft, components for the Advanced

Jet Trainer and high performance jet engines.

 

"A new structured dialogue between the US defence department's

office of net assessment and its Indian counterpart will develop

exchanges between the defence research and analyses communities in

both countries," the joint statement said.

 

The policy group decided to go ahead with exercises in accordance

with the plan flagged off by the US Pacific Command chief, Admiral

Dennis C Blair, last week.

 

These will be in five areas: training for combined humanitarian

airlift, combined special operations training, small unit ground/air

exercises, naval joint personnel exchange and familiarisation,

combined training exercises between US Marines and corresponding

Indian forces.

 

"The US-India relationship is one that the US considers important

not just in relationship to the immediate war against terrorism —

also that — but as a basis for a strategic relationship we want to

cement and develop," said Feith.