The
United States has subtly hinted that it has been in talks with New Delhi for
using airfields in India as “staging areas” for carrying out aerial
surveillance and launching attacks on terrorists in and around
Afghanistan.
President
Joe Biden’s administration is “deeply engaged” with New Delhi, the US Secretary
of State, Antony Blinken, said, testifying before the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the House of Representatives – the lower house of the American Congress.
In the strategic circles in both the US and India, there are now more voices
favoring the idea of India providing a military base to the US Navy, preferably
somewhere in the Andaman and Nicobar group of islands.
Since
the US Navy is said to be planning to deploy 60 percent of its surface ships in
the Indo-Pacific, it wants safe territories in or the adjoining Arabian Sea,
Andaman & Nicobar, and the Bay of Bengal for refueling and other logistic
support.
In fact,
the Pentagon has been looking for base opportunities in the Indo-Pacific since
its 2004 Global Defense Posture Review (GDPR) plans that are “for increasing
the number of overseas US facilities by replacing and supplementing large Cold
War-era bases in Germany, Japan, and South Korea with smaller facilities known
as forward operating sites, or FOSs (small installations that can be rapidly
built-up), and cooperative security locations, or CSLs (host-nation facilities
with little U.S. personnel but with equipment and logistical capabilities),
both of which can be activated when necessary.
The
secretary of state had been asked by a Republican Congressman from Tennessee
whether, given Pakistani agency ISI’s support for the Taliban, the Biden
administration had “reached out to India as a possible staging area for the over-the-horizon
forces — I’m talking northwest India as a potential — because we all know Qatar
and Doha and the other places are just a little bit too far”.
In
response, Blinken said: “Let me just say generally, Congressman, we’re deeply
engaged with India across the board. With regard to any specifics about
over-the-horizon capabilities and the plans that we put in place and will
continue to put in place, I’d rather take that up in a different setting.”
Blinken used the phrase “across the board” and did not qualify the nature of engagement with India while avoiding specifics.
Indo-US relation has been on its peak, and India is designated as a major defense partner by the Washington. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi – led government came to power, India and US have signed the long-pending foundational agreement.
Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) was Signed in 2016, followed by the communications compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) which was signed in 2018, and then the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) in 2020.
After Signing these Agreements India and USA Military engagement is now very deep and both the countries are working on various aspects together, scenario have changed a lot in respect to relations of these two countries after 2016, So their are possibilities that, India might start taking to USA on this issue in the coming times.
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