The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S., India sign military communications pact
Accord seen as framework for future cooperation.
NEW DELHI — The United States and India signed a major military communications agreement Thursday during a visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to New Delhi, highlight- ing the growing partnership between the two nations as they seek to manage a rising China.
The agreement, which had been under discussion for more than a decade, will allow India to receive military-grade communications equipment from the United States and permit the exchange of real-time encrypted information on platforms used by the Indian and U.S. armed forces.
Pompeo and Mattis were in India for their first joint meeting with their Indian counterparts, a conclave aimed at showcasing areas of agreement between the world’s two largest democracies — while downplaying areas of tension.
The relationship between the United States and India has entered “a new era,” Pompeo said, adding that Thursday’s meeting was “symbolic of our increasingly close partnership.”
The Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement, signed Thurs- day by Mattis and his Indian counterpart, is a type of foundational accord that the United States uses as a framework for military cooperation with other coun- tries. (Washington has such agreements with fewer than 30 nations, Reuters news agency reported.)
India had hesitated to conclude the agreement partly out of worries about the United States getting access to Indian military communications.
“If the Indian establish- ment is willing to move forward with politically tricky but operationally mean- ingful agreements, I take that as a good sign,” said Joshua White, who served as a senior adviser on South Asian affairs at the National Security Council under the Obama administration.
Indeed, India’s defense minister, Nirmala Sithara- man, sounded ebullient about the prospects for fur- ther collaboration. Defense cooperation “has emerged as the most significant dimen- sion of our strategic partnership and a key driver of our overall bilateral relation- ship,” she said Thursday. The momentum in that arena has “imbued a tremendous pos- itive energy” to U.S.-India relations, she said.
But in realms apart from defense, the relationship has progressed more halt- ingly. India is one of many targets in President Trump’s crusade to reduce the U.S. trade deficit, and the two countries have imposed titfor-tat tariffs. The Trump administration is pushing India to increase its imports of U.S. goods and to drastically reduce its purchases of Iranian oil or face sanctions.
Thursday’s meeting was supposed to be held in Wash- ington but was postponed twice by the Trump admin- istration. Pompeo struck a conciliatory tone about the areas of friction between the two countries in remarks to reporters after a half day of meetings in New Delhi.
Many countries, including India, “are in a place where it takes them a little bit of time to unwind” oil imports from Iran, he said.