Trust is the keyword

However, prolonged discussions between External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot between late-1998 and early-2000 removed misunderstandings to a great extent. President Clinton8217;s support to India8217;s position on the Line of Control during Kargil and his advice to the Nawaz Sharif government to pull back from the LoC were a positive watershed in Indo-US relations. Clinton8217;s visit to India in March 2000 further improved India8217;s relations with the US.

Prime Minister Vajpayee8217;s discussions with President Clinton in September 2000 and the discussions between Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra and their counterparts in the Bush administration between November 2000 and March 2001 laid the foundations of the current phase of Indo-US defence cooperation. The military coup in Pakistan, incremental threats of international terrorism and, most importantly, the terrorist bombing inside the US on September 11, 2001, are factors which have contributed to an expansion of Indo-US cooperation.

The rationale of this phenomenon is the broad convergence of interests and consensus on these issues between India and the US. The Bush administration is less didactic and intrusive on non-proliferation issues, compared to the Clinton administration. This has also helped reduce mutual tensions on the issue though differences on non-proliferation still remain.

It would be pertinent to mention the details of the multi-faceted defence co-operation that is evolving between India and the US. Defence Secretaries William Perry and Dick Cheney of previous administrations had interacted with their Indian counterparts during the eighties and the nineties. Visits and exchange of views between senior military commanders of India and the US had commenced in 1992.

Joint consultative mechanisms on defence policy and security issues have been established since 1992. Barring the ambiguities and drifts between 1995 and 1998, these mechanisms have not only stabilised themselves institutionally but have increased their scope of consultations.

A joint experts group on countering terrorism has been in existence since the end of 1999. Its terms of reference and responsibilities have gained in substance and have expanded since the US launched its campaign against cross-border terrorism and the Al-Qaeda. The Indo-US Defence Policy Group is now fully functional to discuss proposals of cooperation and for implementing them at the policy level.

The US side is led by Douglas Feitch, Under Secretary for Defence Policy in the Department of Defence and the Indian side by Defence Secretary Yogendra Narain. Its first meeting took place after the US removed sanctions against India on September 22 last.

The next meeting of the Group is scheduled to be held in Washington on May 21 and 22. Arrangements for cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries have also been institutionalised. Joint executive steering groups between the army, navy and air forces of the two countries have been created a separate steering group for each branch of the armed forces.

These steering committees have met over the last four months. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the US, General Richard Myers, visited India earlier this year. The chief of the US Army, General Henry Shelton, and the Commander in Chief, Pacific, Admiral Dennis Blair, have visited India.

The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, visited India in November, soon after the US launched its military campaign in Afghanistan. Our Defence Minister George Fernandes was in Washington early this year to continue the interaction on defence and security matters. The US Navy participated in the International seminar 8216;Bridges of Friendship8217; organisated by the Indian Navy in Mumbai in February 2001. It was the first time the US Navy participated in a Fleet Review organised by the Indian Navy.

There is now an Indo-US agreement on cooperation between the navies of the two countries to secure maritime trade routes between the Suez and Straits of Malacca. Joint training exercises were held by the two navies as recently as in March. An increasing number of officers from the Indian armed forces are proceeding for training in military institutions in the US as is the case with officers of the US armed forces who come to the National Defence College, New Delhi, and the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington in South India. Cooperation in military training projects is expected to double under the IMET programme of the US in the coming year.

This pattern of cooperation between India and the strongest military and technological power in the world adds an important strategic dimension to India8217;s foreign and defence policies. That Indo-US defence cooperation is increasing on a long-term basis, despite continuous positive involvement of the US with the Musharraf government in Pakistan, is significant.

It is clear that while US-Pak cooperation is predicated on the objectives of containing Islamic extremist violence, the US8217;s defence involvement with India has broader political and strategic objectives in dealing with power equations in the Asian region and the Indian Ocean.

Future structuring of India8217;s defence cooperation policies with the US has to take place in the context of the expanded military presence of the US from Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan in the north to the Philippines in South East Asia. This includes US military presence in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and the offer of military facilities to the US by India and Bangladesh.

Our defence relationship with the US has also to be nuanced in terms of our substantive defence cooperation relationship with the Russian Federation and our general political relations with China. While there is no basic conflict of security interests between the US and India, one cannot wish away some differences of approach in the details. For instance, the importance of India8217;s relations with Iran or on the issues of arms control and disarmament.