Mattis seeks deeper ties with India amid China assertiveness
NEW DELHI: US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis held talks with Indian leaders on Tuesday to deepen military ties including the potential sales of US jet fighters and surveillance drones that experts say are aimed at helping it rein in China’s influence in the region.
Mattis is the first cabinet rank official to visit India under the Trump administration and was due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ties between India and the United States have rapidly expanded with New Delhi buying weapons worth US$ 15 billion over the last decade from the United States, moving away from traditional supplier Russia.
At the top of the agenda is to move forward with a deal to supply 22 Sea Guardian drone aircraft to the Indian navy that the US government approved in June, the first such clearance to a non-Nato ally.
The Indian navy has sought the unarmed drones to help it mount longer duration surveillance of the Indian Ocean where Chinese naval ships and submarines are making regular forays.
The United States has been critical of China’s build- up of military facilities in the South China Sea and had suggested joint patrols with the Indian navy across the region.
New Delhi has turned it down, fearing a Chinese backlash.
“China looms very large for both countries,” said Dhruva Jaishankar, a specialist on IndiaUS relations at Brookings India.
“The strategic underpinning of India-US defence ties is in the common concerns they have over China, over its revisionism.”
The Indian air force has also asked for 90 armed Avenger Predator drones that experts say it could deploy to conduct crossborder strikes, for instance on camps of militants that it says exist on the Pakistan side of disputed Kashmir.
Such a sale would need White House and Congress approval, sources said.
Pakistan and possibly China are likely to see such a sale as de-stabilising.
Vivek Lall, chief executive, US and International Strategic Development at General Atomics, the company that makes the drones, said it was pleased the Indian government had won approval for the surveillance version of the drone. — Reuters