APPROACH AND STRUCTURE
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- Introduce with increasing defence partnership with the US.
- Explain the significance
- Discuss stability in the indo-pacific
- Conclude
INTRODUCTION: India is one of the world’s biggest defence equipment buyers. Once overly dependent on Russia with around 60-70% of its inventory supplied by Russia, it has begun to purchase more high-tech defence goods from US suppliers. One reason is that New Delhi now has the funds to buy defence hardware from the open market. A second factor is the strategic convergence between India and the US on the rise of an aggressive and expansionist China in the Indo-Pacific.From less than $400 million of defence acquisitions till 2005, the U.S. has since signed defence contracts of $20 billion.
SIGNIFICANCE OF INDO-US DEFENCE DEALS
US-INDIA defence and securityrelations,which are the original drivers of their comprehensive global strategic partnership,enjoy a bipartisan consensus.India is a “major defence partner”and“Most Favoured Defence Partner”.India has also signed the four foundational agreements (GSOMIA, LEMOA, COMCASA and BECA). The Defence Industrial Security Annexe (DISA)was signed in December 2019, signaling growing trust and cooperation.This fledging defence partnership offers several advantages. Some of them are:
a) Access to critical technology
US has helped that India also joined the export control regimes (Australia Group, Missile Technology Control Regime and Wassenaar Arrangement) and has practices consistent with the Nuclear Suppliers Group. In 2018, India was placed in Category I of the Strategic Trade Authorisation, easing exports of sensitive technologies.India needs access to the most sophisticated defence technologies for its defence modernisation, and the most potent source of such technologies remains the US.
b) Compatibility
Given India’s evolving procurement system, efforts should be made to enhance compatibility of technology from various sources. This may require greater cooperation with the US since many of India’s suppliers other than Russia depend on US technologies for their products.
c) Make in India domestic
It needs the latest technologies for defence modernisation, especially capacity-building, indigenous manufacturing in defence. The growing Indo-US security relationship is also a surety for receipt of high grade weapon platforms by India and build on technology transfer for self-reliance.
d) Inter-operability
With an increasingly aggressive China flexing its muscles, India and the US are expanding their bilateral military relationship, especially in the Indo-Pacific.The two sides are also increasingly engaged in multi-lateral exercises such as the MALABAR, covering the broad expanse of the Indo- Pacific. LEMOA COMCASA and BECA makes the Indo-Pacific Partnership between the US and India an operational reality. Now, with these key defence pacts in place, cooperation can happen in a more structured and efficient way, rather than episodic withbuilding capacity to fight together.
e) Russia- china relations
Following the 2014Ukraine crisis and Russia’s pivot to the East, Moscow and Beijing have been deepening their military cooperation at a remarkable rate, which involves strategic arms like S-400 missiles and the sharing of key military experience and technology-related research.And President Putin has not ruled out a hypothetical Russian-Chinese military alliance. Russia is also aware of Beijing’s growing aggressiveness, but it needs China for economic reasons. Russia a close partner of bothIndia and China but with renewed rivalry between the two, Moscow is without a chance to mediate.
f) Russia’s defence cooperation with China and Pakistan
Russia and India have co-produced and co-developed the Brahmos missile and Russia has made in India platforms and equipment. The S-400 AD system is to be delivered by the end of 2021 and India is interested in continuing the deal irrespective of the consequences of CAATSA. No two countries have had such deep trust and cooperation.The problem is that Russia has also intensified defence cooperation with China and Pakistan, both India’s adversaries-turned-enemies. Although India cannot cut defence ties with Russia entirely, it has managed to become an important market for advanced American arms.
STABILITY IN THE INDO-PACIFIC
The Indo-Pacific includes the South China Sea, where Chinese aggression has been a matter of concern for multiple nations.There is need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China’s rising military maneuvering.
Neither India nor the US can by themselves secure the Indo-Pacific. Both the US and India have complementary capabilities that can be jointly harnessed and deployed once inter-operability gets perfected and the flow of US equipment to the Indian armed forces multiplies. The US has been very keen on having India on its side as it re-balances to the Indo-Pacific. With the signing of BECA, the two sides have established the US-India Indo-Pacific Partnership.
China’s economic growth, combined with its military modernization, continues to widen the strategic and capacity gap with India. Its expanding collaborations in India’s neighborhood have raised considerable concerns and an unfolding Sino-Indian competition. New Delhi has realized that it lacks economic and military resources and capacity to respond to a new security environment. New Delhi understands the potential of partnerships in addressing these challenges. India has emerged as a strong rallying point to stand up to an aggressive China that threatens peace and stability in Indo-pacific. The US sees the defence partnership in the context of its Building Partner Capacity programmes.
CONCLUSION:
India’s dependence on Russia has gone down based on its own requirements and interests and the US has been major beneficiary of this shift. However, Russia will remain the key supplier of weapons systems to India even as diversification efforts continue. However, the Defence Ministerhas remarked that the defence partnership with the US is even more vital now due to challenges India faces. Because of Chinese belligerence, New Delhi’s strategic embrace of Washington is the obvious outcome. The joint challenge is converting the seller-buyer relation to co- development and co-production and Make in India.
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