“The visit, their sixth interaction to date; demonstrates the importance both sides place on strengthening defence ties across many areas: from increased strategic and regional cooperation, to deepened military-to-military exchanges, to expanded collaboration on defence technology and innovation”, the statement said. The Congress expresses serious concern over jeopardising India’s national, geo-global and strategic interests by signing of the LEMOA. During his visit to Washington in June, the United States named India a “major defense partner”.
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The Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement or LEMOA is an agreement that the United States considers “foundational” for defence cooperation with any country.
The Minister and the Secretary also discussed cooperation on capabilities to increase India’s capacity for maritime domain awareness, but surprisingly, there was no mention of India’s request for Predator drones for this goal.
No, it can’t. Neither US nor India can set up base in each other’s country through this deal. It is for logistics support to each other.
However, it believes that the agreement would significantly enhance the operational capacity of the Indian armed forces especially during their response to humanitarian crisis or disaster relief.
“This is undoubtedly a leap forward in US-India military cooperation”.
“Such an agreement was first made by the United States in 2003 when the usa invaded Iraq. During Shinzo Abe’s first tenure as Japan’s prime minister, Japan hyped the concept of a quadrilateral alliance between the US, Japan, Australia and India; however, New Delhi remained cool to the idea”, the editorial said.
Unless providing such facilities is specifically barred in the agreement, it would be a significant shift in our time-tested foreign policy of military neutrality and would justifiably be seen as more than merely overcoming the “hesitation of history”. Now is arguably a time when India has the most room for strategic manoeuvring. “We are not obliged to provide support to any and every USA military operation in the region”, said strategic expert and Director of Society for Policy Studies C. Uday Bhaskar.
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However in a statement, the Defence Ministry has said the agreement does not create any obligation on either party to carry out any joint activity and does not provide for the establishment of any bases or basing arrangements.
