MillenniumPost
World

New US President should meet Modi in 100 days: think tank

In a major report on ‘India-US Security Co-operation’, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) urges the upcoming administration to ensure that India signs the foundational agreements, which it believes is important for strengthening the India-US defence relationship.

The absence of such agreements will also make it nearly impossible (if not completely impossible) for the US to provide to India certain advanced sensing, computing and communications technologies that India believes are necessary for its own defence capabilities, it says.

“The next administration should work with Australia, <g data-gr-id="36">India</g> and Japan to establish a quadrilateral security dialogue, led by the US State Department and foreign ministries. The dialogue should focus on issues of common interest across the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions,” the report says.

Creating a specific opportunity for the US president and Indian Prime Minister to meet in the first 100 days will send a strong signal about the importance of bilateral ties, it says.

The CSIS recommends that the US and India deepen the announced efforts on submarine safety and anti-submarine warfare to include combined training and exercises to expand the capability of both countries as well as their interoperability with each other.

Seeking to increase the FDI limit in defence sector to 100 per cent, the report also calls for strengthening and expanding the homeland security dialogue.

The think tank recommends that the new president should invite India to participate (as an observer or stakeholder) in the Quadrilateral Coordination Group talks with the Taliban.

It urges for establishing a US-India dialogue on the Middle East, modeled on the “East Asia Consults” of the US State Department and India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

The CSIS says Mr. Modi’s emergence as a strong leader, just as the US was seeking to consolidate its strategy of re-balance to the Asia Pacific, gave America an opportunity to engage with a rising leader in India, and India an opportunity to <g data-gr-id="33">reprioritise</g> and rethink its engagement with the world.

Mr. Obama continues a bipartisan run of three presidents who have seen India as key to US strategy in Asia, it said.

Observing that Mr. Obama has built a strong relationship with Mr. Modi, and maintained a high tempo of engagements at the highest levels, the report says the US engagement with India has increasingly focused on the security aspects and India has responded with uncharacteristic warmth to this outreach.
Next Story
Share it