Revived: plan to give access to bases

SUJAN DUTTA

New Delhi, Jan. 22: The Narendra Modi government has asked the defence establishment to resurrect an 11-year-old proposal from the Pentagon that will enable India and the US to grant mutual access to each other's military bases, refuel and replenish warships and fighter planes and, in a contingency, participate jointly in multi-nation military operations.

"The US has given us non-papers on LSA. We are now ready to look at the fine print. We have asked them to explain how these 'foundational' agreements benefit us. Yes, we have the political nod," a senior defence source told The Telegraph today.

The LSA is short for "logistics support agreement". A non-paper is a diplomatic instrument for background information before an agreement is signed (or not signed).

The crucial element the Indian establishment is grappling with is: will signing the agreements get construed politically as a military alliance? Within the establishment there is a growing belief that they can weather such an allegation because it can translate to economic benefits domestically. Also, there is awareness that the impact of fundamental policy changes can only be assessed years after the changes have been made.

"People have long looked at this relationship (India-US) and seen the fundamentals in place for a really, really close partnership, and yet it's been a challenge in translating that into outcomes," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser in the White House's National Security Council, said in a tele-conference from Washington last night.

The list is also likely to include "non-defence items," the source said. This is more likely a reference to "dual-use" items, which serve both civilian and military purposes.A review of the framework agreement on defence cooperation over the last 10 years has also found that it favours the "foreign military sales" route of the Pentagon through which government-to-government transactions are preferred over company to government transactions.