A
US offer Delhi can't refuse By
Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI -
US President George W Bush's first tenure was good for
India, and Bush II promises to be even better, with
the United States formally offering a range of
military hardware, including an anti-missile radar system and
maritime spy planes, to India. The offer includes
the much-touted Patriot anti-missile defense system
that tackles aircraft and also tactical and cruise
missiles, C-130 stretched medium-lift transport aircraft,
P-3C Orion maritime surveillance planes, and even
F-16 fighters. The US has also offered Perry-class frigates and
Sea Hawk helicopters, while special-operations forces will
be looking at chemical and biological protection
equipment.
According to reports in the Indian
media and independently confirmed by Asia Times Online,
Indian Ambassador to the US Ranendra "Ronen" Sen was in
New Delhi last week and discussed the US offer - as well
as a proposed US arms deal with Pakistan - with Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and Defense Minister Pranab
Mukherjee. Sen also met with the ruling United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson, Sonia Gandhi.
The hardware offer will be discussed further when US
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld comes to New Delhi
next week (the highest ranking official since Bush's
election victory last month to visit the subcontinent)
and will also travel to Pakistan.
The
US offer to sell military hardware - including
the Patriot missile system - to India comes with a
much deeper strategic message. India has a constant
gripe against the United States' arming of Pakistan, with
the ostensible reason of taking on al-Qaeda terrorists
and patrolling the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. India
fears that a militarily strong Pakistan in the wake
of US sanctions against the supply of similar weapons to
India is a threat to its own security. Last month the
US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which handles
all government-to-government military sales, informed the
US Congress of a weapons package for Pakistan. It
includes TOW anti-tank missiles, Phalanx shipborne guns and P-3C
Orion long-range maritime-patrol strike aircraft at a
total cost of US$971 million.
The news came as a
bit of a shock to India, with Foreign Secretary Shyam
Saran conveying India's apprehension over the proposed
sale to incoming US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
What was particularly galling was the fact that the
Indian navy had been in negotiation for over three years
for the purchase of 12 P-3C Orions to bolster
reconnaissance capabilities. India instead was offered
older hand-me-down P-3B models, which it turned down.
With the latest US offer, comparing the
Indian military acquisition to Pakistan's would be redundant:
if the Patriot deal goes through, it will provide the
necessary strategic depth to India's defense arsenal,
making it significantly different from that of either
China or Pakistan. The US offer to sell P-3C Orion naval
reconnaissance aircraft is also an upgraded one with the
version being offered to India the "P-3C plus", equipped
with the latest avionics and equipment systems. US
officials describe it as a "maritime patrol aircraft
with offensive capability", more advanced that what
Pakistan will have at its disposal. Indeed, the US
proposal comes during a period when India has been
warming up to the Bush administration second term as
well as an unprecedented level of US-India military ties
over the past couple of years. Importantly, this break
from the past, wherein the US has been reluctant to
supply arms to India, comes when Rice is set to take
over the State Department.
However, analysts
here also warn against going all the way with the US.
According to defense expert Bharat Karnad, "US arms
supply policies are extremely fickle and hostage to not
just the White House but also a number of committees and
subcommittees in the US Congress, any of which could
insert a rider to an Appropriations Bill negating at
well a deal cut by the executive." There is truth in
this caution; in the past the Indian navy's entire Sea
King helicopter fleet - with US components - was
grounded in the face of US sanctions.
But in the current
context and by all accounts, the Indian government
wants to move quickly on the United States' offer.
According to a detailed report that appeared in the
Indian Express, the UPA government wants Raytheon, which
manufactures the Patriot system, to give a presentation;
it is likely that India will accept the offer of the
30J-30 Hercules aircraft, the only medium-lift plane in
its class that carries tanks and troops to battle; on
the F-16 planes also offered to Pakistan, the paper said
the UPA government was not likely to be interested as
India already has Russian Su-30 MKIs and French Mirage
2000s. The P-3C Orion aircraft is expected to be picked
up, as the Indian navy is keen to have a long-range
maritime surveillance platform, with anti-submarine
capabilities. It is understood that F-16 manufacturer
Lockheed Martin approached the Indian Embassy in
Washington with an offer after New Delhi objected to
F-16 sales to Pakistan. Lockheed Martin's
representatives said India was cleared by the Pentagon
for the supply of F-16s, the P-3C Orion and C-130J-30
stretched Hercules transport aircraft.
Indeed, the latest India-US entente is a culmination of the
two critical components through which India is
being perceived by the Bush II regime. One is purely
business, with India expected to tread the path of a
reciprocal partner in other purchases such as the augmenting of
Air India's passenger aircraft, which is being
keenly watched in Boeing headquarters in Seattle. It is
also likely that India will pitch for the Arrow
missile defense system, which is a joint US-Israel effort.
India has already purchased the Green Pine radar system
and the Phalcon early-warning aircraft from Israel. Between
the Israeli offer and the US, India is likely to bend
the Washington way because of the long-term political
and strategic implications attached to the purchase.
The second reason is the role that the
US expects India to play in the international
security structure, once US Secretary of State Colin
Powell is out of the picture and Rice takes command of
the foreign office. Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney
and Rice have never been comfortable with Powell's even
hand to China with the intention of engaging the Asian
giant in trade and security matters. Powell's
China-centric Asian approach has never gone down well
with the neo-conservatives who control the Bush
administration. The neo-cons prefer India to act as an
effective check on the military and economic might of
China. Rice has also never been comfortable with
Powell's mollycoddling of Pakistani President General
Pervez Musharraf. Under Rice, Musharraf (who is on his
way to Washington to meet with Bush) will continue to be
very important to the US, but not at the cost of
relations with India. With Powell out of the way, the
path is clear and the arms offer is the first real
indication of a more proactive India policy under Rice.
Russia, meanwhile, is far from impressed with
the deal. On Tuesday, officials told Delhi that Moscow
would no longer transfer any high-technology defense system
to India without a pact to protect intellectual property
rights, and said India's bid to buy the United States'
Patriot anti-missile system would not work on
Russian-supplied platforms.
"If India will not
fully honor our interests, then there is no need to
attach strings, conditions and demands from Russia not
to trade [in arms] with Pakistan," an unnamed Russian
Defense Ministry source was quoted as saying by the
state-run RIA Novosti agency, ahead of Russian President
Vladimir Putin's visit to India.
Pointing out
that currently, at the request of India, Moscow is not
cooperating with Islamabad in the defense sector, the
official said that if India does not keep Russia's
interests in mind, military ties with Pakistan can be
resumed.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright 2004 Asia
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