In a statement that could ruffle the feathers of Left parties here, a former top American military official today suggested that India and the US should proceed to the "next level" of military cooperation and international peace-keeping, starting with Afghanistan.
19 April 2008: PTI
In a statement that could ruffle the feathers of Left parties here, a former top American military official today suggested that India and the US should proceed to the "next level" of military cooperation and international peace-keeping, starting with Afghanistan.
"By working together, I do not mean simply tactical exercises at peacekeeping centres. I mean serious discussions of strengthening the world's peacekeeping capabilities... Of the relationship between military forces in peacekeeping and non-military organisations, official and non-official.
"Afghanistan today is a good place to start, where the United States has both military and civil teams helping that country and India has a strong commitment of civil reconstruction teams," former US Pacific Command Commander Admiral (Retd) Dennis C Blair said at a global conference organised jointly by International Institute of Strategic Studies and Citi India here.
He also recommended that the two nations "must base their relationship on the military operations that they are likely to conduct together -- they must define the common political objectives of their countries that military forces contribute to and then plan and practice them together".
Maintaining that New Delhi and Washington have not yet moved to that level of military relationship, Blair said "I believe it is time to do so".
The Left parties have been not only opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal but demanding scrapping of the Strategic Defence Framework Agreement, saying it would draw India into the America's strategic gameplan worldwide and make Indian foreign policy subservient to that of the US.
Referring to counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations of India in Jammu and Kashmir and of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, the former PACOM chief said "we should share our experience and trade our skills" in combating this. "There are of course many policy questions to be worked out between the two countries if we were to conduct a joint counter-terror operation," he said, adding much could be done in this field to benefit from each other's best practices and "that units are ready should the two governments decide to conduct a joint operation".
He wanted India and the US to sign three "very basic and routine" agreements -- Mutual Logistic Support Agreement, the Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement and the End Use Monitoring Agreement.
"Because they are not signed, the Indian-American military relationship is slowed and there are extra expenses involved for India. We need to sign these technical documents and get on with our cooperation," Blair said.
Observing that the recently-published US military strategy of having a 'thousand-ship Navy', he said India and the US, along with other seafaring nations, could do a lot in turning this concept into reality.
Besides providing security on the high seas and keep the waterways safe, the two nations have been offering help to other countries during natural disasters like the tsunami.
"If India -- as well as China and Japan -- choose this path (of cooperation), then their increasing military capabilities are instruments of both national and common benefits. The armed forces of these countries will find a ready partner in the US," the PACOM Commander said.
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