NEW DELHI: The United States and India signed a defense agreement on Tuesday that will provide New Delhi access to classified satellite and sensor data available with the US security establishment, a major tool that is likely to have significant military ramifications for the region.
“We held a comprehensive discussion on a range of key issues,” Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said at a news conference on Tuesday where he also described the signing of the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) between the two countries as “a significant move.”
“We identified projects for the joint development of defense equipment,” he continued. “We reaffirmed our commitment to peace and security of the Indo-Pacific region.”
The US and India signed the deal during the annual 2+2 dialogue between the defense and foreign ministers of the two countries amid escalating tensions and a “war-like situation” between New Delhi and Beijing in the disputed Himalayan region of Ladakh.
The situation also remains precarious in Kashmir where India and Pakistan frequently blame each another for cross-border skirmishes that injure and kill soldiers and civilians on both sides of the Line of Control.
Tuesday’s development follows 20 Indian soldiers losing their lives during a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley of Ladakh on June 15, breaking 45 years of peace at the Indo-China border.
Reaffirming its support for New Delhi in the faceoff with China, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the media that his country would “stand with India in its efforts to defend its sovereignty.”
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper added it was time to institutionalize cooperation between the two nations.
“Our focus now must be on institutionalizing and regularizing our cooperation to meet the challenges of the day and uphold the principles of a free and open Indo-Pacific well into the future,” Esper said in the meeting with the Indian delegation.
In 2016, Washington designated New Delhi as a “major defense partner” and signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) which allows the militaries of both the countries to use their bases for strategic purposes.
Two years later, in 2018, the two nations signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) for “interoperability between the two militaries and sale of high-end technology from the US to India.”
Singh said that India’s “military to military cooperation” with the US was “moving forward very well,” as he described Tuesday’s deal as a “significant” step in the right direction.
“Signing the BECA today, after signing LEMOA in 2016 and COMCASA in 2018 is a significant achievement in that direction … of bilateral defense issues and larger regional and global perspective,” he said.
The US, for its part, threw the spotlight on “advanced” security and cooperation between the two allies.
“This year marks the 15th anniversary of the first US-India Defense Framework and our third 2+2 Ministerial. We have strengthened our defense and security partnership considerably since then ... We [also] advanced our regional security, military-to-military, and information-sharing cooperation,” Esper said.
Experts believe the BECA defense pact would “facilitate operational engagement” between the two nations.
“BECA will complete the four basic agreements that facilitate operational engagement between the armed forces of the two states,” Pranay Kotasthane, a strategic expert at Bengaluru-based think-tank, the Takshashila Institution, told Arab News.
He said that the agreement did not compromise India’s strategic autonomy as was “feared by some.”
“The keyword here is ‘facilitate.’ There is no loss of autonomy because of these agreements. India doesn’t become beholden to fighting American wars because of these agreements,” he added.
Former Indian ambassador Anil Wadhwa agreed, saying that the deal broke the past “hesitation” of sharing data between the two nations.
“It certainly strengthens close military and technical cooperation. There would be no hesitation in terms of changing data and selling of equipment based on geospatial information,” Wadhwa, who served as Indian ambassador to Italy, Poland, Oman and Thailand, told Arab News.
The 2+2 dialogue is a format to discuss defense and security issues between India and the US, and it aims at enhancing peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region.
Launched in 2015, it replaces the India-US Strategic Dialogue which remained in place since 2009 and focused on regional security, economic cooperation, defense, trade, and climate challenges.
Underlining its importance, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Tuesday: “Our national security convergences have obviously grown in a more multipolar world. We met today to not only advance our own interests but to ensure that our bilateral cooperation makes a positive contribution in the world arena.”
The timing and the intent of the defense pact, however, raises questions on whether India is preparing itself to counter China.
Some experts say that at a time when New Delhi should be trying to reconcile its differences with Beijing, the American “embrace would frighten China.”
“The USA will not come to help India to fight China. The only result from this kind of deal would be greater enmity ... We are creating a situation where we are leaving China with no other alternative but to declare war on India,” New Delhi-based political analyst Prem Shankar Jha told Arab News.
He added that “we are doing everything we can to frighten the Chinese, but this will further heighten the tension” between the two countries.
Wadhwa disagreed, however, saying: “If Beijing is not concerned about New Delhi’s sensitivity, why should India care?”
“The Chinese have not been sensitive to our concerns; they did what they wanted to do. They have been at the Indian territory in Ladakh which they have not done before. In that situation, we had no choice but to get the defense deal from whichever place it was available,” he told Arab News.
Kotasthane said that the defense deal would “balance China’s growing power and arrogance.”
“China has chosen to provoke India militarily,” he added. “Under such circumstances, it is prudent for India to balance China's growing power and arrogance by collaborating with other states on its own terms.”