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US-Indo defence ties not based on arms sales: Pentagon

Jade

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Washington: America’s strong and deepening defence ties with India are not dependent on any arms sales, but on common interests and objectives between the two largest democracies of the world, a top Pentagon official said today.

“Defence trade is certainly a part of the bilateral relationship but the cement and the core of that relationship is not on any arms sales,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia Robert Scher said.

“It is on the common interest, common objectives, people to people ties between our two countries,” he said.

The Pentagon has said that the ties between India and the US are based on common interests and objectives between them.
“We share common interest in terms of maritime security in the Indian Ocean; we have the same short of appreciation of the importance of the global commons and we share interesting safety and security in the region,” Scher said responding to questions at Pentagon round table with select Washington-based journalists from the Asia Pacific region.

“This is the foundation of the growing relationship that I think, has the potential and the currently we are seeing how we are both working together to really improve the stability of the region at large,” said the top Pentagon official.

India is going to be a clear area of investment for the United States, Scher said.

“For India the strategy points out that the United States is investing in a long term strategic partnership with India to support its ability to serve as a regional economic anchor and provider of security in the broader Indian ocean region,” he said.

The top Pentagon official said the US India relationship is a top priority for the government and for the Department of Defence.

“We have a strong a growing bilateral partnership. We think that we can work together with India on a range of issues because we share common interests and that is foundation of the work that we do together and how we look at the world together,” he said.
 
we have gone beyond the buyer seller relation that existed for a while . the US is looking for a strategic partner ,and we fit the bill.:)
 
frustration over MMRCA shows enough and m not saying it doesnt matter but their loss matters a lot

Coz the F16 block 70+ offered in MRCA was the most powerful model for F16 designed. Also F18 which was offered was also a true winner with $70 million per piece. They thought that we didnt trust them enough to offer them the combat aircraft tender.

Nevertheless, if there is any country's people who have the maximum people to people contact with US people, its INDIA. Indians are present in US as Deans of IVY league Universities, one of their largest Investment bank (citibank) is being led by an Indian who graduated from Nagpur University, Indians occupy positions in major law firms and govt as well.

So, any Indo - US relation will only be natural.
 
Coz the F16 block 70+ offered in MRCA was the most powerful model for F16 designed. Also F18 which was offered was also a true winner with $70 million per piece. They thought that we didnt trust them enough to offer them the combat aircraft tender.

Nevertheless, if there is any country's people who have the maximum people to people contact with US people, its INDIA. Indians are present in US as Deans of IVY league Universities, one of their largest Investment bank (citibank) is being led by an Indian who graduated from Nagpur University, Indians occupy positions in major law firms and govt as well.

So, any Indo - US relation will only be natural.

Those models were attached with strings and even they self wrote that we didnt offer them latest tech which we share with our allies like israel ;)
and there are more chinese in u.s than indians so it doesnt matter at all.
 
Not based on arms sales but $4 BN deal for P-8I (total 24) and $8 BN deal for C-17 (total 20) sure help!! Not to mention the plethora of other less publicised deals like small arms, FACs, FICs, simulators etc worth Billions in their own right.
 
Those models were attached with strings and even they self wrote that we didnt offer them latest tech which we share with our allies like israel ;)
and there are more chinese in u.s than indians so it doesnt matter at all.

and they rightly got rejected. Dont no why they were making such a hue.
 
the fact is they cant ignore a huge market like us . there will be wins and losses . but there is usually a new contract over the horizon always.
the most powerful compulsion of the states to be an ally is the fact that they need a strategic partner in the sub continent . and there is no one other than us who share the same beliefs and security threats as they do .
 
Coz the F16 block 70+ offered in MRCA was the most powerful model for F16 designed. Also F18 which was offered was also a true winner with $70 million per piece. They thought that we didnt trust them enough to offer them the combat aircraft tender.

Nevertheless, if there is any country's people who have the maximum people to people contact with US people, its INDIA. Indians are present in US as Deans of IVY league Universities, one of their largest Investment bank (citibank) is being led by an Indian who graduated from Nagpur University, Indians occupy positions in major law firms and govt as well.

So, any Indo - US relation will only be natural.
That all may be true, but I have heard many times that these deals have "strings" attached to them such as we cannot deal with russia, we cannot buy certain above a certain number of missiles from some country or we can only produce xxx tons of nuclear material per year etc. I think, for now, its best to stay from US and its a good thing that americans are not taking this negatively...
 
That all may be true, but I have heard many times that these deals have "strings" attached to them such as we cannot deal with russia, we cannot buy certain above a certain number of missiles from some country or we can only produce xxx tons of nuclear material per year etc. I think, for now, its best to stay from US and its a good thing that americans are not taking this negatively...

That sounds too cold war like policy in 21st century.

We will never sign any pact like CISMOA etc.

IMO US policy makers still regards India as more of a subservient state. A restrictive nuclear deal would have best served them. The reason being, through the hyde act etc they wanted to keep a tab on the nuclear arsenal of INDIA and at the same time wanted to release India from the shackles of restrictions in nuclear trade. In that way they could have got $$$ on export of US reactors, made INDIA a bit more confident to flex its muscles in the global arena. But since the moderate nuclear arsenal would never be sufficient against deterring a full fledged Chinese nuclear attack, so INDIA would always have to go to US for help. Hence INDIA will always have to factor in US likes/dislikes before taking a side in global arena so as to always keep them happy.

They wanted a relatively bigger power as their strategic hedge against China. Hence it was a smart play by US to free us from nuclear trade barriers and at the same time keeping INDIA on a leash by supporting the act which prohibited NSG members in trading reprocessing technology with non NSG members like INDIA.

At the same time, India had to bite the bullet and take what was coming in their direction since we have a moderate uranium resource not capable of supporting both our strategic as well as economic needs. We needed to free ourselves from nuclear restrictions so as to move towards 3rd phase of nuclear power generation which is utilizing our thorium reserves.

Also, by trying to intimidate us by portraying impressive chinese military rise as a potential existential threat to INDIA, US wanted to play on our weakness.

And I would say that, we should make our weakness as our strength. We should think a 1000 times before entering into any partnership with US and rather be a non aligned member.

By signing nuclear deals with France, Russia etc and IAF by ordering most non combat aircrafts from US and trusting their combat fighter tender with France has played a delicate act of balancing the play.

The bottom line is, INDIA cannot be insulated from this power game being played by USA. What is
needed is to play a balancing act and at the same time maintaining our policy of peaceful existence through non alignment.
 

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