Ajai Shukla / New Delhi Nov 22, 2012, 00:59
IST
A respected
Washington-based think tank released a report on Tuesday, entitled ‘US-India Military Engagement ,’ which reflects
the American strategic community’s growing — if incredulous — realisation that
New Delhi is not as enthusiastic as Washington about a high-profile military
partnership between the two countries.
The Center
for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) report, authored by the
Pentagon’s former South Asia director, Sahibzada Amer Latif , describes the period from
2004 to 2008 as “a heady time for bilateral security and strategic cooperation.”
But the “stymying of deeper military contact” since 2008 has been ascribed to:
India’s policy of strategic autonomy; the Indian defence ministry’s (MoD’s)
inability to discuss policy and strategy; and the Indian military’s “capacity
challenges.”According to the report, “the Indian
civilian bureaucracy has been the main obstacle to deeper military engagement,
despite the Indian military’s desire for greater bilateral
cooperation.”The US strategic community
has earlier contrasted India’s “professional” and “highly capable” military,
with its relatively slow-moving and cautious bureaucracy. But this report
sharply questions the military’s capabilities. It notes “the Indian military is
facing capacity challenges through a combination of arms modernisation, serious
personnel and discipline matters, and complex national security challenges that
will tax the capacity of the Indian armed forces to engage the United
States.”“India, as a strategically
developing country, has yet to develop a comprehensive and long-term concept of
how and when to employ its military beyond its immediate neighbourhood or on
missions other than peacekeeping,” the report says.The report recommends “the United States needs to
maintain reasonable expectations of India as a potential security partner over
the near term to midterm, given its reluctance to partner too closely with the
United States, which is rooted in a combination of (India’s) foreign policy
orientation and capacity limitations.”Mirroring Washington’s disappointment at Indian
reluctance to play a more visible security role in the Asia Pacific,
the CSIS report states: “Aside from Washington, the rest of
Asia is also waiting for India to wade into the complex security scenarios that
confront the Asia-Pacific region… Many Asian countries feel there has been
episodic engagement and little demonstration of New Delhi’s intent to exercise
more decisive leadership in the region.”
This would be
a reality check for US Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta , who described India during his
visit in May as a “linchpin” of America’s pivot to Asia. The report quotes
Panetta, who said: “Defense cooperation with India is a linchpin in this
strategy (of rebalance to Asia). India is one of the largest and most dynamic
countries in the region and the world, with one of the most capable
militaries.”
The CSIS
report, unlike several earlier American reports, highlights the concerns that
impose caution on New Delhi in engaging Washington. Amongst these are: Indian
concern at the US-Pakistan relationship; domestic politics and the opposition of
the Left; India’s impression of US unreliability stemming from “a past history
of sanctions”, and the still unknown ways in which “the growing influence of
state-based parties” will affect India’s national policies.
Given these
constraints, the report recommends formulating a realistic long-term vision;
dialogues about issues like Afghanistan and China’s military power; and
multilateral cooperation with Asia-Pacific powers like Japan, Australia,
Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea. It advocates joint patrolling of the
Indian Ocean with the navies like those of Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh.
And, perhaps, most controversially, it recommends that the US and India share
Indian Ocean bases like the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Diego Garcia .
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