Date:27/07/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/07/27/stories/2003072704670100.htm

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India, U.S., to discuss Iraq, defence ties

By Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI JULY 26. The United States and India will discuss their evolving defence relationship, including the role to be played by Indian troops in Iraq, if the United Nations Security Council passes a fresh resolution authorising international peacekeepers for Iraq, during the visit here of the highest ranking U.S. defence official next week.

With India having declined to send troops to Iraq without an explicit U.N. mandate, the two-day interaction between the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard B. Myers, and senior Defence Ministry officials beginning on Monday is expected to focus on the current situation in Iraq and the possible Indian troop deployment options in that country. Though there is no formal acknowledgement, the Army has kept a division size force in readiness for Iraq as part of its operational plans for the current year.

The earmarked division is posted 100 miles from the national capital and is cut out for the role envisaged for Indian troops in Iraq. It could be fortified with additional tanks and personnel from the medical and engineers units.

Gen. Myers' meetings with the National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, the Defence Secretary, Ajay Prasad, and the Army and Naval Chiefs, will see New Delhi conveying its requirements for a mutually beneficial relationship such as shifting India to the catchment area of the American Central Command (Centcom) which oversees the volatile Middle East and facilitating the sale of the Israeli "Arrow" anti-missile missile system.

Though the U.S. has allowed Israel to begin negotiations with India on the sophisticated "Phalcon" air-borne radar system, it has dragged its feet on permitting the sale of "Arrow", whose acquisition is considered critical by New Delhi to counter the threat of Pakistan's inventory of Korean and Chinese missiles.

Gen. Myers is expected to touch upon the new schedule of Indo-U.S. military exercises to replace the existing series called the Kicklighter proposals during his interaction with the Chairman of the Chief of Staffs Committee and Chief of Naval Staff, Madhvendera Singh, and the Chief of the Army Staff, N. C. Vij.

Gen. Myers and Gen. Vij are expected to touch upon service-specific issues including the two options for Indian troop deployment in Iraq. One foresees India taking charge of a sector in the northern sector with a beefed-up division strength (17,000 troops) and other seeking participation of a brigade in a multinational deployment headed by Poland.

Meeting ahead of the defence policy group (DPG) meeting, the highest forum of bilateral military dialogue, the two Generals will also review the status of the Indian Army's request for specialised counter-insurgency equipment and nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) warfare suits. The Army has forwarded a 29-item wish list worth over Rs. 200 crores and the U.S. will supply almost half of it during the current year. The first major Indo-U.S. weapons deal in three decades has taken off with the arrival of a set of weapon locating radars (WLRs) to help locate hostile artillery batteries and neutralise them. The absence of WLRs had led to heavy casualties to Indian troops from Pakistani artillery during the Kargil conflict.