Growing US-India military ties under spotlight

Monday's signing of a new US- India defense pact in New Delhi is hailed here by some as one concrete achievement of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip to India.

The Christian Science Monitor called it a "tangible accomplishment."

Meanwhile, the deal once again put the growing Washington-New Deli defense relationship under spotlight, observers said.

The agreement, inked by Clinton and Indian Minister of External Affairs S. M. Krishna, will set terms for U.S. officials to monitor India's weapons usage and allow the US to sell sophisticated military technology to India, including fighter jets.

Under the terms of the deal, the US would be allowed to conduct "end-use monitoring," meaning it would conduct regular assessments of India's military policies to verify that weapons systems are being used for their intended purposes.

Such an agreement is required by US law before American companies can legally sell weapons systems to any foreign nation.

In other words, it will turn on the greenlight for US defense giants such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to sell advanced and sophisticated weaponry to India.

"The agreement will boost India's ability to defend itself through the acquisition of US defense equipment while promoting American high tech exports," the US State Department said of the deal in a statement.

Clinton also signed agreements with India on science, technology, space and nuclear sites.

Strategic cooperation

During Clinton's visit, the US and Indian governments set the tone for a Strategic Dialogue that will focus on five principal pillars.

According to US officials, the first and foremost pillar is the strategic cooperation, which includes military, nonproliferation and counterterrorism cooperation.

In fact, since the end of Cold War, the US - India defense ties have been growing continuously, becoming a prominent feature of in the development of two-way relations.

During the Cold-war years, the United States formed a military alliance with Pakistan, India's rival in the region, while India received lots of military assistance from then Soviet Union, top US enemy at the time.

But the United States soon found a new interest in developing military ties with India once the Cold War ended.

In 1995, then U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry visited India and signed a pact with India to start defense cooperation.

However, India's nuclear tests in 1998 angered the Clinton administration, who imposed sanctions on New Deli. But that is only a very brief episode and in 2000 then US President Bill Clinton paid a "historical visit" to India and formally announced the US -India partnership. The bilateral military ties not only recovered after that, but also flourished to a higher level.

The Bush administration further elevated the importance of the US - India ties in strategic and security context, regarding India as an emerging power with "global status." When George W. Bush announced his new missile defense plan in May 2001, many in the international community opposed it.

However, the Indian government expressed its support for the plan.

After 9/11 terror attacks, India actively supported Bush's war- on-terror and offered military cooperation. More importantly, in July 2005, the two countries decided to upgrade their relationship to "global partnership," and thus ushered in a new era of bilateral military cooperation.

Washington, Xinhua