Skip to main content

USA eyes military bases in India



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.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

United Kingdom wants trade and Security pact with India and other democracies

With the changing world demographic's the significance of Indo-Pacific is increasing significantly. On 3rd October Britain's new new Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said, "The UK wants to get into agreements covering trade and security with India and other freedom-loving democratic countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific', to challenge the authoritarian states. Liz Truss was also in charge of talks with India on a future Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as the International Trade Secretary until her recent promotion within the UK Cabinet, She said that she is keen to strike more deals along the lines of AUKUS - the trilateral security alliance between Australia, the UK and the US, which is widely seen as a counter-balance to China. In her first major interview after she took charge as New Foreign Secretary she mentioned "We want to work with our friends and allies to create more economic agreements and security agreements. AUKUS is about protecting trade routes and shippi...
Post a Comment
Read more

China reunification with Taiwan ‘must’ be fulfilled: Xi Jinping

China's President Xi Jinping has said that "reunification" with Taiwan "must be fulfilled", as heightened tensions over the island continue. Mr Xi said unification should be achieved peacefully, but warned that the Chinese people had a "glorious tradition" of opposing separatism. In response, Tsai Ing-wen president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) said "we will not bow to Beijing pressure and our future lay in the hands of our people". Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state, while China views it as a breakaway province. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve unification. Mr Xi's intervention comes after China sent a record number of military jets into Taiwan's air defence zone in recent days. Some analysts say the flights could be seen as a warning to Taiwan's president ahead of the island's national day which is on 10th of October. Taiwan's defence minister has said that "tension...
Post a Comment
Read more