{"id":28236,"date":"2024-08-24T17:51:16","date_gmt":"2024-08-24T12:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=28236"},"modified":"2024-08-27T18:21:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T12:51:44","slug":"india-us-signed-two-pacts-to-deepen-defence-cooperation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/24-08-2024\/india-us-signed-two-pacts-to-deepen-defence-cooperation","title":{"rendered":"India, US signed Two Pacts to Deepen Defence Cooperation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/IR<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reached Washington DC on a four-day official visit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India and US signed two key pacts \u2014 <strong>a non-binding Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA) and a Memorandum of Agreement regarding Assignment of Liaison Officers.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The SOSA will <strong>mandate the US and India<\/strong> to provide <strong>reciprocal priority support<\/strong> for goods and services that <strong>promote national defence.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The arrangement will enable both countries <strong>to acquire the industrial resources<\/strong> they need from one another <strong>to resolve unanticipated supply chain disruptions <\/strong>to meet national security needs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>India is the 18th SOSA partner of the US<\/strong> after Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The two sides also signed <strong>a memorandum of agreement<\/strong> regarding the assignment of liaison officers to deepen defence cooperation.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This agreement seeks to <strong>enhance cooperation, understanding, interoperability, and sharing of information on matters of mutual interest.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Overview of India and US Bilateral Relations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Since India\u2019s independence, ties with the United States have weathered the <strong>Cold War\u2013era<\/strong> distrust and <strong>estrangement over India\u2019s nuclear program.\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Relations have<strong> warmed in recent years<\/strong> and cooperation has strengthened across a range of economic and political areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Bilateral Trade:<\/strong> The bilateral trade between the two countries has <strong>risen by 72 percent<\/strong> between 2017-18 and 2022-23.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The US accounted fo<strong>r 18 percent of the gross FDI inflows into India <\/strong>during 2021-22, ranking second behind Singapore.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Defense and Security:<\/strong> India and the US have signed a <strong>troika of \u201cfoundational pacts\u201d<\/strong> for deep military cooperation, beginning<strong> with the<\/strong> Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016, followed by the <strong>Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA)<\/strong> after the first 2+2 dialogue in 2018, and then the<strong> Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) in 2020.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In 2016, the<strong> <\/strong>United States elevated India to a <strong>major defense partner,<\/strong> a status no other country holds.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Space: Artemis Accords<\/strong> signed by India established a common vision for the future of space exploration for the benefit of all humankind.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The United States and India cooperate through the bilateral Civil Space Joint Working Group.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Multilateral Cooperation: <\/strong>India and the United States cooperate closely in multilateral organizations and fora, including the United Nations, G20, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-related fora, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Together with Australia and Japan, the United States and India convene as the Quad, a diplomatic network, to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Nuclear Cooperation: Civil Nuclear Deal was signed in 2005,<\/strong> under the agreement, India agrees to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and place all its civil resources under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In exchange, the United States agrees to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>India\u2019s preference to its strategic autonomy: <\/strong>While its embrace with the U.S. is getting stronger, deeper and more comprehensive, India is also cognisant of the need to maintain its strategic autonomy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Conflicting positions: <\/strong>India\u2019s muted criticism of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 expectedly led to some frustration in the West, raising questions over India\u2019s credibility as a security partner.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Defence Relations with Russia:<\/strong> The United States has expressed particular concern regarding new streams of arms like the S-400 air defense system, because they fuel Russian power, diminish prospects for interoperability of and secure communications between U.S. and Indian forces, and preclude sharing of existing sensitive weapons technologies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>evolving relationship<\/strong> between India and the United States holds significant importance in shaping the global order of the 21st century.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To fully unlock the potential of this partnership, both governments must focus on <strong>reducing bilateral and multilateral bottlenecks <\/strong>and charting a course for a comprehensive and strategic global alliance.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The strengthening of the mechanisms of cooperation between the two militaries is of significance in the context of an increasingly aggressive China.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/india-us-ink-bilateral-security-of-supply-agreement-amid-rajnaths-official-visit-to-us-9528911\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reached Washington DC on a four-day official visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28237,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28236\/revisions\/28237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}