India, US sign military logistics agreement, clarify not about bases

And even as it was signed, both parties made it clear that this agreement does not allow for the basing of U.S. troops in India and does not make support obligatory, which means LEMOA is non-binding. “We are not obliged to provide support to any and every United States military operation in the region”, said strategic expert and Director of Society for Policy Studies C. Uday Bhaskar.

The recent India-US military bonhomie seems to have touched a raw nerve with China, which claims that New Delhi’s bid to join the Washington alliance could bring “strategic troubles” to the region.

Carter said that the agreement is “fully mutual”, with neither nation obligated to do anything for the other, “operating together when we choose to”. With LEMOA, India has signed two of the four.

Congress, which had appeared to be putting off the agreement while in power, and vocally opposed it when India and United States announced their “in principle” agreement in April, made no response till Tuesday evening.

Damning the deal as a fundamental departure from India’s time-tested policy of “strategic military neutrality”, party spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala expressed serious concern over attempts to jeopardise India’s national, geo global and strategic interests. “It’s not a basing agreement of any kind”, Carter said.

The US and India have signed a bilateral logistics exchange memorandum of agreement (LEMOA) in a bid to strengthen defence ties between the countries.

Provision of logistic support, supplies, and services from one Party to the other would be in return for either cash payment or the reciprocal provision of logistic support, supplies and services.

During the meeting Carter and Parrikar praised the discussions at the inaugural Maritime Security Dialogue held in May. The agreement marks a significant leap forward in defence cooperation between the two countries.

The Minister and the Secretary also discussed cooperation on capabilities to increase India’s capacity for maritime domain awareness, but surprisingly, there was no mention of India’s request for Predator drones for this goal.

India’s major defence partner status allows it access to nearly 99% of the latest American defence technologies.

“The (Narendra) Modi government has compromised on Indian sovereignty and surrendered its strategic autonomy by signing such an agreement with the most powerful imperialist country in the world”, the CPI-M said. Parrikar said United States is one of India’s primary sources of defence equipment, and while it has shared some of its cutting-edge platforms, he would like to take this forward to greater collaborative projects.