Ashton Carter: India wants a technology relationship, not a buyer-seller one, with the US - Broadsword by Ajai Shukla - Strategy. Economics. Defence.

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Friday 3 August 2012

Ashton Carter: India wants a technology relationship, not a buyer-seller one, with the US



An image, taken from the Pentagon's website, of my asking Panetta in Delhi why the US was holding back on providing India technology for the Javelin missile. Panetta emphatically rejected that the US was holding back... but I know that he was being economical with the truth.
American Forces Press Service has reported on Ashton Carter’s account of his visit to the Asia-Pacific (Japan, Thailand, India and South Korea in that order) at the end of last month. Karen Parrish
of American Forces Press Service has reported on Ashton Carter’s account of his visit to the Asia-Pacific (Japan, Thailand, India and South Korea in that order) at the end of last month. Here are excerpts from what he said on 27th July 12, on board a special aircraft back to Washington.
“I think that what our partners and allies in this region are looking for is confirmation that the United States is serious and concrete about shifting … a great deal of our emphasis from the places we have been -- of necessity -- preoccupied for the last decade, namely Iraq and Afghanistan, to the Asia-Pacific region.”
Carter revealed that he gave allies a level of planning detail and a number of examples relating to specific U.S. strategic rebalancing events that helped them understand “that we are, as I said at the beginning of the trip, walking the walk and not just talking the talk.”
Carter cited two reasons for his confidence that DOD can rebalance to the Asia-Pacific even with a constrained defense budget.
Firstly, the excess capacity already freed up from Iraq and the additional capacity that will become available as the US draws down from Afghanistan. Those resources will be diverted towards building up the U.S. military posture in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The second reason is that we are prioritizing capabilities that are particularly relevant to this region in our budget…. Even though we don’t have all the money we want, we have all the money we need for the Asia-Pacific,” said Carter.
On his visit to India, Carter said: “…In India, which was very important … I discussed with all of the senior leadership in the Indian government ways that we can strengthen our cooperation and deepen it technologically.”
Noting that India does not just want to be a customer for US weaponry, Carter said: “They have a proud technological heritage. And they want a relationship that enriches that, and enables that -- not just a buyer-seller relationship.”
Carter said that the US had been backstopping Asian security for decades: “We have been playing this role in the Asia-Pacific theater for many decades. And all we’re saying is that we intend to continue to play it. That needs to be emphasized, because many people in the region and also in our own country have been preoccupied, very understandably, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“And they may have lost sight of the fact that an anchoring commitment of global security is here in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Carter, “and we are that anchor.”


3 comments:

  1. A technology relationship with USA is not going to happen. USA will never approve that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Let us be frank, all the US hardware being bought left right and centre is payback for the nuclear deal.

    I am not sure US is really keen to share its top line technologies with India. They are virtually guarenteed an income stream from India, so why should they? I think we have to just grin-n-bear it. We are going to spend our money on US hardware sans the ToT. It is pay back. No free lunches esp in the US. Accept it and move on.

    Our relationship with the US will remain half baked. Our strategic interests are not fully alligned. US wants India to be the next UK, and we want to the next France. They want a ready market (milking cow) for US exports, where as we want to an equal partner.

    One only has to see how American pressure has opened up Indian insurance industry. Next it will be retail - and I dont think there is anything wrong with either of the examples.

    Just see the creeping dilution of defense offset clauses, the slowly increasing pressure to sign interoperablity agreements, and I can see India being in firm US orbit within 10-15yrs.

    I think we are much better off buying things from other nations that would be more willing to share techology and go in for joint development. Their interests more more commercial than geo-strategic. So our money talks when it comes to other suppliers (apart from the US).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Why would the U.S., part with technology? They would never do it for the simple fact that it's not in their best interests.

    They want/need a customer not a competitor!

    ReplyDelete

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