Analysis
Military ties with USA on new high
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 18
Military-to-military relations between India and the USA are set to reach a new high in the coming months.
The two countries top military brass will be engaged in talks to explore newer areas of defence cooperation, decide on mutually convenient dates for holding joint exercises, discuss ways to combat terrorism together and even go for research, development and production of weapon systems jointly.
The Joint Technical Group (JTG) between the two countries is scheduled to meet in Washington early next month wherein the two sides are going to decide on the list of weapon systems which they mean to take up for joint research, development and production, well placed sources here said today.
Significantly, Washington does not have this level of military-to-military cooperation with Islamabad though the Bush administration has been trying to do a balancing act and trying to keep the Pakistanis happy. So far, the Americans defence cooperation with Pakistan is confined to joint exercises which in itself means nothing much, the sources said.
The JTG is part of the larger Defence Policy Group (DPG) which was set up in 1995 when the then US Defence Secretary William Perry visited India. Since then the DPG had held three meetings when the Indo-US relations were hit by Pokhran-II nuclear tests by India. The DPG was revived last year and another meeting was held here in December last.
The next meeting of the DPG will now be held in Washington in May this year. It is taking place within five months of the previous meeting because a huge backlog of important issues has piled up and these issues need to be cleared fast.
It is understood that the Americans are very keen on sharing military intelligence with India as unlike Pakistan, the credibility of Indian agencies is on a much higher footing. The Pakistani military intelligence has been perforated by fundamentalists and, therefore, is not completely reliable.
The Americans interest in building closer military-to-military ties with India stems from their short-term and long-term security and strategic assessments. The Americans are aware Islamist radicals of different hues, including the Al-Qaida gang, are bound to target American interests worldwide and, therefore, a healthier and bigger military intelligence umbrella is desirable.
Interestingly, the Indo-US DPG is going to be preceded and followed by a top-level meeting of the two countries military officials in Washington, called net assessment, which will exchange assessment of security and strategic issues.
While the American side at the Net Assessment will be led by Mr Andrew Marshal, the Indian side will be led by General Pankaj Joshi, Chief of Integrated Defence Staff. The first meeting of Net Assessment starts in April, less than a month ahead of the DPG meeting.
Incidentally, the USA does not have a DPG with Pakistan.
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