Military pacts during Antony's U.S. visit ruled out

NEW DELHI
September 22, 2010

Even as three military pacts pursued by Washington will not materialise during Defence Minister A.K. Antony's two-day U.S. visit next week, both countries will continue extending their weapon sales partnership into to new areas, including the controversial sensor fuse weapons or cluster bombs, said U.S. government officials.

Despite two high-profile visits to New Delhi over the past two months and many attempts at persuasion before that, India is still not convinced about the efficacy of signing three military pacts with the United States. While two proposed pacts are being promoted as harbingers of cutting-edge military technology to India, the third would reduce the paperwork required to use each other's military facilities.

Having submitted non-papers highlighting the advantages of inking these agreements to the Prime Minister's Office and the Defence Ministry during U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates' visit in January this year, Pentagon is hoping for Mr. Antony to respond during his interactions in Washington. The two technical agreements are the Communications and the Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) and Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation (BECA). The facility enabler pact is the Access and Cross Servicing Agreement which is being called the Logistic Sharing Agreements in India's case.

However, sales of U.S. military equipment and joint exercises — in deferment to India's distaste for multi-nation events — will continue to increase in scope. Even as the Indian and the U.S. Special Forces are training together in Belgaum, both sides are putting finishing touches on two interactions in Japan and Alaska. An Indian armed forces team will witness amphibious operations by the U.S. Navy and Marines off Okinawa, while another team will travel to Alaska for a brigade-level staff exercise.

Cluster bombs

Though more than 100 countries have accepted the convention on banning cluster weapons, the U.S. is asking India to speed up its decision process. “We hope the decision will be taken before the production line closes. If the order is not placed in time, the price will go up quite a bit,” said U.S. officials. Cluster bombs disperse into several bomblets and cause havoc in a wide swathe of area. The unexploded bomblets are known to have caused civilian casualties in Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, Serbia, Vietnam, and Western Sahara long after the military conflict had ended. The U.S. by its own admission has spent $1.2 billion in cleaning up areas, where cluster bombs have been used.

India, China, Russia, Israel and the U.S. are among the prominent countries that have not signed the cluster bombs convention.

India shares the international community's concern over the humanitarian impact due to irresponsible use of cluster bombs. But it feels that a comprehensive universal ban on cluster bombs is not within the reach of the entire international community. Till such bombs offer a distinct military advantage and cannot e replaced by other cost-effective alternatives, cluster munitions will continue to find a place in armouries.

In addition, India and the U.S. are close to sealing contracts for anti-tank missiles, C-17 super heavy lift planes and light artillery guns. The U.S.-based companies are in the running for three helicopter contracts besides the multi-billion dollar tender for fighter aircraft.