National
U.S. pursuing India's military shopping list
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, JAN. 28. The U.S. is actively pursuing the military hardware shopping list submitted by India during the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld's visit to New Delhi in November last.
``The U.S. is taking follow-up action on the release of 20 arms sales licences to India,'' the U.S. Ambassador, Robert Blackwill, told reporters this evening after an extended meeting with the Defence Minister, George Fernandes. If things work out on expected lines, the U.S. would for the first time, after the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, supply military equipment to India in a big way.
While Mr. Blackwill declined to reveal details about India's `shopping list', New Delhi has made it known that it is interested in procuring American-manufactured weapon locating radars, electronic sensors for the border, engines for its light combat aircraft (LCA) as also anti-submarine cum maritime surveillance aircraft.
Apart from weapon sales, the U.S. will also strengthen its military engagement with India in the areas of defence cooperation, joint exercises and intelligence sharing. Regular high-level talks between military officials are also envisaged. These topics were extensively discussed during Mr. Fernandes' recent visit to Washington.
Action in these areas will be furthered by the visit of high-level U.S. military delegations from early February onwards. The teams from the U.S. army, air force and the marine corp are coming with the brief to fine-tune the broad agreements reached in the areas touched upon during the Defence Minister's visit.
Underlining the importance of Mr. Fernandes' visit and earlier high-level interactions between defence establishments of both countries, the Ambassador said bilateral defence ties had gained ``more altitude'' and there was now an ``excellent convergence'' of views on defence cooperation. ``We believe Mr. Rumsfeld profited from his meeting with Mr. Fernandes and his visits to the White House and the State Department''.
Military ties between both nations had ceased after the Pokhran tests of 1998 and thawed as a result of the recent bilateral cooperation to rout out the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban from Afghanistan. The decks for closer military cooperation in the area of intelligence sharing and joint exercises were cleared with the signing of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) which prohibits both the countries from leaking confidential information about each other's military hardware and expertise to third countries.
Intensive military-to-military cooperation was flagged off with the visit by Mr. Rumsfeld followed by a ``preparatory visit'' by the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, Dennis Blair. Significantly, Admiral Blair's interaction with senior members of the Indian security establishment took place days before the resurrection of the Indo-U.S. Defence Policy Group, an institutionalised structure to promote closer defence ties.
Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry and the U.S. Embassy denied that there was any information on the reported visit of Tommy Franks, heading the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. While Mr. Blackwill refused to comment that Gen. Franks would arrive here today, other U.S. Embassy officials said, ``We don't have any information. We don't have any dates''. Senior Defence Ministry officials also said there was no information about his visit. They felt that such a visit was unlikely because Gen. Frank's area of operation ends in Pakistan while military relations with India are covered by the U.S. Army's Pacific Command headed by Admiral Blair.
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