Improving Defence Cooperation

Why in news?

As part of a defence appropriations bill of over $600 billion, the US Congress passed legislation that designated India as a “major defence partner”.

How well is India-US defence cooperation?

• Under the newly designated status, India will be treated at par with the US’s closest allies when it comes to the transfer of defence technologies.
• The defence cooperation entered into next stage in 1995 with the Agreed Minute on Defence Relations.
• However, after May 1998 following the Indian nuclear tests, all such collaboration effectively ground to a halt.

What are the reasons that hinder India-US defence cooperation?

• Despite the successful conclusion of this diplomatic minuet, progress on defence cooperation did not materialise.
• First, India had remained heavily dependent on Russia for its defence supplies.
• Second, despite the Cold War’s end, some within India’s policymaking community remained reluctant to turn to the US for substantial defence purchases.

How was the approach of Obama’s administration?

• The Obama administration’s initial approach to India appeared lukewarm. 
• Following the assassination of Osama bin Laden and the US decision to drawdown its forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s utility dramatically declined.
• Around the same time, the PRC, which had been boosting its presence in the South China Sea, showed signs of greater assertiveness.
• Despite past tensions with the US over Modi’s tenure as Gujarat’s chief minister, the Obama administration adopted a pragmatic approach toward the new regime.
• The P.M proved to be more than willing to reciprocate.

Whether the defence cooperation is transforming?

• The US Congress’s willingness to designate India as a “major defence partner” represents the culmination of a process that has slowly but surely brought the two states into a mutually supportive defence cooperation relationship.
• Along the way, it has also been supplemented with important defence deals.
• India has become not only the largest foreign purchaser of US weaponry but the US has now transplanted Russia as the principal supplier of weaponry to India.
• Even though some big-ticket joint projects, such as the building of an aircraft carrier, remain in abeyance, there is little question that the Indo-US arms transfer relationship has undergone a fundamental transformation.

Category: Mains| GS – II| Bilateral Relations

Source: The Indian Express