New Delhi, Jan. 18: The
US has linked India's ability to detect Chinese submarines in the Bay of Bengal
and the Arabian Sea to the signing of an agreement that will permit sensors and
equipment on US planes to talk and share data with those on Indian warships and
planes.
The chief of the US
Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, has also flagged concerns on
China-Bangladesh military relations alongside worries over China-Pakistan
military ties. Bangladesh took delivery of a refurbished Chinese Ming-class submarine
last month.
The US Pacific Command
includes India and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) in its area of responsibility.
Admiral Harris was talking to a select group of journalists after briefings he
took and gave in Washington DC recently.
"My meetings with
the President-elect's (Donald Trump) and the National Security Council team
last week underscore the seriousness of the way they view the region with great
importance. I am reassured over where the new teams are on the relationship
with India".
The Indian and the US
Navies operate the P8A and the P8i maritime surveillance aircraft, he pointed
out.
"With COMCASA, the
P8 aircraft would do more interoperable activity. P8A and P8i are not
completely interoperable against the kind of subs (submarines) we were talking
about," he said.
Admiral Harris was
replying to a question on how the signing of the COMCASA would take India-US
military-to-military relations forward tangibly. Earlier, responding to another
question on reports of an increased deployment of Chinese submarines in waters
around India, Admiral Harris said: "We work closely with India to improve
India's capability. (There is the) Malabar (exercise) that now (also includes)
Japan... we are getting better together with our ability to track Chinese submarines
in the Indian Ocean Region. There is sharing of information on Chinese maritime
movements. I am not getting into specifics beyond that."
COMCASA stands for
Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA). It is currently
a reworded draft of the CISMOA --- Communications Interoperability and Security
Memorandum of Agreement - that was first proposed by the US in 2004 as one of
four "foundational agreements" for increased military cooperation.
Two of the agreements
have been signed: an End-User Verification and Monitoring Agreement, whose text
was frozen in 2007, and a Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), a
renamed India-specific Logistics Support Agreement, that was signed in August
last year. The COMCASA and a proposed Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement
on Geo-Spatial information (BECA) are on the table.
Admiral Harris said he
believed the COMCASA would be clinched before the BECA but he would not give a
timeline.
India's hesitation so
far in signing the agreements is a suspicion in the military and the
bureaucracy that they might be too intrusive. Meaning, they want provisions
that may allow US military personnel or US software that may intervene with
Indian assets to be taken off.
In August, after signing
the LEMOA, defence minister Manohar Parrikar himself alluded to this. "It
has taken 12-13 years for this (the LEMOA); we will come to the next after we
have explained this to the public and then take a decision", he had said.
The US Pacific
Commander-in-Chief said a Chinese aircraft carrier battlegroup could operate in
the Indian Ocean Region today. But "effectiveness may be a different issue
(because) India has far more experience and expertise in operating aircraft
carriers". The Chinese Peoples' Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has one
carrier refurbished from a Russian vessel, the Liaoning. It is building a
second.
Admiral Harris said that
India should be concerned about increasing Chinese influence in the region.
"I am not a Centcom
(US Central Command) guy; I am a Pacom (Pacific Command) guy. I believe the
China-Pakistan relationship and also the China-Bangladesh relationship is of
some concern. By that, I do believe that a strong and prosperous China is not a
bad thing".
Pakistan is in the US
Centcom's area of responsibility, unlike India which is in the Pacific Command
area of responsibility.
Pakistan is understood
to be in talks with China to procure between six and eight submarines. "We
are not involved but we are watching it closely. Our relationship with Pakistan
is like our relationship with India - they stand on their own merits," he
said.
The Admiral explained
that the US "rebalance" to Asia - part of the Obama doctrine that saw
military deployments in the Asia-Pacific region increase - would not
immediately fade away with the Trump Presidency. He said the military component
of that policy has involved deploying 60 per cent of US naval assets in the
region and a substantial increase in deployments of the US air force and the US
army. "They might stop using the term 'rebalance'" he said.
Earlier, speaking at the
Raisina Dialogue, a series of speeches on foreign and strategic policies hosted
by the ministry of external affairs and think-tank Observer Research
Foundation, Admiral Harris said "I do want to reassure you that the US
values the Indo Pacific and the view that Secretary Carter (US defence
secretary in the Obama administration) has will continue in the new
administration."
Last year, at the same
event, Admiral Harris had called for joint India-US patrols in the Asia-Pacific
region. The public-airing of the proposal somewhat embarrassed the Indian
government because it did not want to project that a military alliance was in
the making.
Courtesy Telegraph
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