In a landmark move in bilateral move toward building defence ties, the United States and India have signed a logistics agreement+ for the use of each other’s land, air and naval bases for fix and resupply.
Advertisement
An agreement was signed between India and the United States on Monday to enable the military of the two nations access each other’s bases and facilities around the world.
The agreement was signed in Pentagon during Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s visit to the US.
The pact will allow the two countries to boost “practical engagement and exchange”. “So, it basically will ensure that both navies can be supportive of each other in the joint venture operations we do, exercises we do”, Parrikar told reporters. Whereas Manohar Parikar said that “India and the United States have a shared interest in freedom of navigation and overflight and unimpeded commerce as part of the rule-based order in (the) Indo-Pacific”.
India and the usa have signed an agreement on sharing military logistics, which may involve sharing each other’s military bases for repairs and resupplies.
“If India hastily joins the USA alliance system, it may irritate China, Pakistan or even Russian Federation”, the Global Times said in an editorial.
It is another step in India strengthening its strategic partnership with USA. The agreements are considered routine between the USA and its other defence partners. In April, during Mr Carter’s visit to Delhi, the two countries announced an in-principle agreement to sign the pact. The two Defence ministers said the logistics agreement would be useful during operations or humanitarian assistance in times of natural disasters by way of providing support.
Surjewala further said: “Modi government has neither explained the reasons which prompted this major shift nor made the contents of the agreement public”. Parrikar said U.S. is one of India’s primary sources of defence equipment, and while it has shared some of its cutting-edge platforms, he would like to take this forward to greater collaborative projects.
Such a nature of cooperation would also run the risk of India letting itself become party to conflicts with all their attendant adverse consequences, including India’s relations with the countries in such conflict zones.
What Both leaders said in their Joint Press Conference?
India and USA have already collaborated in the past on these like during the 2004 tsunami relief efforts and in 2015 for the Nepal natural disaster relief work.
Advertisement
Following the first one in 2002, the General Security Of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), the previous governments were hesitant of signing the other three, assuming that these may lock India into uncomfortable closeness with the US.
