INDO-US strategic clinchs even more tighter

• The UPA had stonewalled attempts by the US to ink the three so-called “foundational military agreements” during its 10-year tenure on the ground that it would “compromise the strategic autonomy” of India
• The NDA govt inked the first one on reciprocal logistics support – Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement with India-specific safeguards in 2016

The strategic clinch with the US is set to get even tighter, with India signalling its readiness to ink two more bilateral military pacts, procure helicopters worth $3 billion and participate in a joint tri-Service amphibious exercise for the first time.
Top government sources said “substantial progress” had been made towards finalising the Communications, Compatibility and Security Arrangement (COMCASA) and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA) between the two countries.

The previous UPA regime had stonewalled all attempts by the US to ink the three so-called “foundational military agreements” during its 10-year tenure on the ground that it would “compromise the strategic autonomy” of India. But the NDA government went ahead and inked the first one on reciprocal logistics support – Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) – with India-specific safeguards in 2016.

Now, the stage is being set for the other two, COMCASA and BECA, which the US contends will allow India more access to advanced military technologies and platforms with encrypted communications like Predator-B and MQ-9 Reaper drones, as was earlier reported by TOI.

“The broad contours of COMCASA have been finalised… only some text-based negotiations are left. The BECA draft is also under discussion. We have insisted on India-specific assurances, much like what was done in LEMOA, and a status on par with the US’s closest allies,” said a source.

This comes ahead of the first India-US ‘two-plus-two’ dialogue between foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman with their American counterparts, Mike Pompeo and Jim Mattis, in Washington on July 6.

Sources said the two countries had also decided to hold their first-ever mega tri-Service amphibious exercise to supplement the flurry of war games they already hold every year from the top-notch naval Malabar (with Japan as the third participant) to the counter-terror Vajra Prahar and Yudh Abhyas between their armies.

This will be only the second time that India will deploy assets and manpower from its Army, Navy and IAF together for an exercise with a foreign country, after the Indra war games with Russia in Vladivostok last year.