Trump's 'US First' test to defence ties

In late September, the US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis became the first cabinet member of the Trump administration to visit India. During his visit, he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

In his meetings with Modi and the others, Mattis stressed on enhancing cooperation between India the US regionally and globally in pursuing shared priorities for peace, stability and combating terrorism.

While mentioning that “India and the United States share a strong and vibrant strategic partnership,” Mattis said, “As India takes its rightful place at the global table, India will find the United States to be a steadfast friend and partner.”

Defence cooperation has been the linchpin of the strategic partnership between India and the US, with defence trade between the two countries having touched over $15 billion. The relationship further received a boost in 2016 when the Obama administration designated India as a “major defence partner” and the two countries signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).

Donald Trump’s coming to power has further bolstered the prospect of deepening the engagement between the two countries. Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the US in June this year and his meeting with President Trump set the stage for the two countries to accelerate their strategic ties to new heights.

In fact, the Trump administration reiterated that it wanted to work together with India on advanced defence equipment and technology at a level commensurate with that of the closest allies and partners of the US.

It was in this context that during Mattis’s visit, the two sides discussed how to refocus and re-energise the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) as a mechanism to promote technology sharing as well as co­-development and co-production efforts. This, in turn, will help India’s deep interest in enhancing defence manufacturing in India under its “Make in India” initiative.

At the same time, as the Indian government attempts to speed up the process of military modernisation with increased FDI in the sector, Washington sees good economic prospects in deepening defence ties with New Delhi. This can be gauged from the fact that one of the reasons behind the visit of Mattis was to ensure that US defence major Boeing gets the order for 57 multi-role combat aircraft for the Indian Navy.

What is equally important is the fact that there is an increasing feeling in the US that India’s security support is needed in the Indo-Pacific, a region that serves as the fulcrum of global trade and commerce, with nearly half of the world’s 90,000 commercial vessels, many sailing under the US flag, and two-thirds of globally traded oil travelling through the region.

Natural partners

The Trump administration has told the US Congress that the two countries are “natural partners” on a range of political, economic and security issues and both desire global stability.

In this regard, the rise of China and its assertive posturing in the South China Sea in recent times is a factor for the US to expand security and military relations with India. At a time when China is asserting its positions on disputed territories with India and there is a growing nexus between Beijing and Islamabad, New Delhi feels that the presence of the US in South Asia helps maintain the balance of power in its favour.

Secretary Mattis’s visit also assumed significance in view of the Trump administration’s new Afghanistan Policy, in which Trump became perhaps the first US President to openly say that “Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos,
violence, and terror,” and wanted India to do more “especially in the area of economic assistance and development” in Afghanistan.

While Trump’s tough stand against Pakistan is welcome, the Modi government was right to declare that India would not send troops to Afghanistan. At the same time, India signed an MoU with Afghanistan for technical cooperation on police training and development.

New Delhi has also said it will undertake 116 new “high impact” development projects in 31 provinces of Afghanistan and has decided to “strengthen security cooperation.” This, in turn, will address Trump’s expectations from India under his new Afghanistan Policy.

Despite the fact that President Trump’s South Asia policy has attached a very high place to India, with Mattis’s visit reinforcing his administration’s desire to expand defence cooperation, one of the biggest challenges facing the expansion of the defence relationship between the two countries under the Trump administration is how the US will strike the balance between Trump’s “America First” policy even while paving the way for the coproduction of defence hardware, among other things, in India.

(The writer is a PhD in International Relations, Pondicherry (Central) University)