NEW DELHI: With the collapse Of the protective umbrella of the Soviet Union the political leadership and defence strategists in the country will be embarking on the first major U-tum in four decades and try to set the course for anew tie-up with the United States next week with the rule of two high level defence delegations from the sole surviving super power.
The commanding general of the US Amy in the Pacific Lt. Gen Johnny Coms is arriving on Monday for the first ever meeting of the Indo-US army executive steering council to be followed three days later by a Pentagon delegation led by the chief of US naval operations Admiral Frank B. Keslo II.
While the steering council set up in pursuance with the Kickleighter proposals will explore the avenues of “expanded defence cooperation and friendship between the two countries the Pentagon team is expected 10 go further and offer joint naval exercises specially in the Indian Ocean.
“This remarkable turn-around in the Indian defence perception was reflected in the defence minister Sharad Pawars remarks to an agency earlier this week when he said. “We are moving towards opening our forces and defence activities to each other as well as having ambitious defence Projects. It will enable experts to see each other’s areas of working and capability for a more meaningful interaction”
The Narasimha Rao government is taking 2 calculated risk in rushing into the arms of Uncle Sam considering that there was a hue and cry raised by all political parties including the Congress (I) Jed by Rajiv Gandhi when not so long ago the Chandra Shekhar government allowed refueling facilities to the US war planes during the Gulf war. The policy change has come about with not so much as by your leave as there has never been a discussion on the subject even in the higher echelons of the Congress (I) party.
“The seeds for closer cooperation between India and the United States were laid in March 1990 with the visit of Lt Gen Claude Kickleighter then commander of the US Army’s Pacific force. Kickleighter who was taken 10 some of the forward posts along the Indo-China and Indo-Pak borders was sufficiently impressed to recommend “gradual expansion in cooperation and friendship in selected areas of common interest” by the end of the decade. But the cataclysmic changes in the geo-political situation have apparently spurred both the parties to step on the accelerator and move closer.
Major components of the Kickleighter proposals are visits by chiefs of staff to each other’s countries on an annual basis the setting up of the Indo-US army executive steering council regular staff talks between the two armies’ reciprocal visits by senior commanders and reciprocal training and observation of training exercises.
The chief of army staff Gen F.S Rodrigues set the ball rolling with a fortnight-long visit to the U.S in August where he held wide ranging discussions with the Pentagon.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 31, 1992
