Us and them

Throughout the Cold War, India and the US have had little defence cooperation, barring the brief interlude after the Sino-Indian border conflict in 1962. The attempts to structure defence ties towards the end of the Cold War by Rajiv Gandhi produced some useful defence technological cooperation, for example in the development of the Light Combat Aircraft. After the Cold War, military-to-military exchanges intensified. But in the end the political framework guiding this engagement was too fragile and did not survive bilateral nuclear tensions.

The new framework agreement opens up opportunities for the Indian defence industry to position itself better in a world where defence industries of the advanced countries are globalising. It should also expand India8217;s ability to bargain for technology transfers and co-production from the three main sources of armaments in the world8212;the US, Europe and Russia. Traditionalists will see new Indo-US defence cooperation as being targeted against either Pakistan or China. It does nothing of the sort. Indo-Pak relations and Sino-Indian relations have never been as good as they are today. And Washington8217;s ties with both Islamabad and Beijing are substantive. What the agreement marks, though, is the recognition of the need in Washington and New Delhi to add more depth to the Indo-US engagement. Even more important is the message that a stable balance of power in Asia requires stronger Indo-US defence cooperation.

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