India has expressed concern over the U.S. decision to sell eight F-16s to Pakistan, with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar conveying the government’s concerns to Carter, who is presently visiting India.
Advertisement
MoD sources say the agreement Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) will be tailored for India and will not be a general Logistics Support Agreement (LSA).
The U.S. defense secretary is now on an official three-day visit to India on the invitation of the Indian defense minister.
Along with other related developments, the Narendra Modi government has converted India “into a full-fledged military ally of the US”, the Communist Party of India-Marxist said. Mr Parrikar said that New Delhi’s continuing concerns regarding terrorism directed against India was underlined during the talks.
“The US is quite clearly becoming the principal partner for (military) hardware and also for the armed forces exercises”, said former Indian foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh. “We always resisted pressure from everybody to be part of a military bloc”, he said. The text of the new Logistics and Support Agreement, however, has not been finalised.
Setting aside years of rejection, India on Tuesday has agreed to sign a pact with the United States of America, which would allow the two militaries to share their logistics. Carter maintained that the sale to Pakistan was linked to fight terrorism and Washington’s relationship with India was unique. India had traditional relationship with Soviet Union, now Russian Federation from the very beginning.
“We don’t have arrangements like that with anyone else around the world, and most of our technology sharing arrangements with India are at the level or above the level of our oldest and closest friends … for example the United Kingdom”, Carter told reporters. “We also agreed to expand DTTI by introducing new and more ambitious projects for mutual collaboration”, Parrikar said. India’s previous government was said to have been resistant toward such a deal.
Washington has increasingly turned its focus to Asia as it tries to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, and is eager for India to play a greater role in its network of regional defense alliances. He also said that the two countries would soon complete a commercial shipping information exchange agreement, Reuters reported.
“We have chose to take forward discussions under DTTI more aggressively on key areas such as jet engine technology”.
Advertisement
The two leaders discussed the secretary’s trip to Goa, and to Karwar Naval Base and the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya – a first for a U.S. defense secretary – as well as a range of security issues, the press secretary said.
