Washington may ask New Delhi to make a choice: Russia or US

[PurpleStone]

Washington may ask New Delhi to make a choice: Russia or US
ET Bureau|
May 30, 2018, 07.38 AM IST

A US team will be in India in mid-June for talks on the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement. Washington wants New Delhi to agree to this protocol.


New Delhi: The Indo-US 2+2 dialogue is likely to see Washington asking New Delhi to make a fundamental choice of whether it wants the US or Russia to be its principal defence partner.

The dialogue, which is now slated for July first week, will have external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a joint conversation with their respective US counterparts on key strategic issues.

Ahead of that meeting, a US team will be in India in mid-June for talks on the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (Comcasa). Washington wants New Delhi to agree to this protocol so as to enable better interoperability and transfer to sensitive technology.

According those familiar with the thinking in Washington, the US wants India to understand that while it’s willing to part with sophisticated equipment and share technology, it’s concerned that India will be operating these platforms alongside Russian equipment.

The message to New Delhi is that India must choose the country it wants as its principal defence partner. It’s in this context that the proposed Indian deal for S-400 air defence system with Russia has come under the scanner.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...-choice-russia-or-us/articleshow/64377887.cms

 

[Papa Dragon]

I hope India chooses Russia over the US

 

[PurpleStone]

I hope India chooses Russia over the US

I will bet Modi will choose US.

 

[randomradio]

These articles are really funny. They always demonstrate the writer's fundamental lack of knowledge in anything to do with foreign policy.

India has always operated in a grey area. India will trade with the US or Russia depending on what's being offered. We choose the product, not the seller. If the seller itself is not inclined to sell, then we will just buy it from someone else. If it's not available from someone else, then tough, but we will never choose the seller for the product.

India has no brand loyalty.

 

[khansaheeb]

I hope India chooses Russia over the US

It's not much of a choice, it will be USA. Indians still have the colonial mindset and still haven't been able to get rid of the shackles of dependency; very much like a housewife dependent on her husband.

But seriously, we are coming to the crossroads of the new world order and how things unravel will set the stage for the next quarter of a century. US is ascertaining and finalising it's pieces, weak pieces will be discarded and powerful ones used in the next phase of expansion and consolidation of it's interests ( a very broad term). It would be interesting how India responds to "you are either with us or against us" as they are too intertwined economically and unraveling could be quite costly. This is the the time the Indian diplomats have to prove their worth and it would be interesting to see how it plays out.

Trump tamasha hi hi..

 

[PurpleStone]

These articles are really funny. They always demonstrate the writer's fundamental lack of knowledge in anything to do with foreign policy.

India has always operated in a grey area. India will trade with the US or Russia depending on what's being offered. We choose the product, not the seller. If the seller itself is not inclined to sell, then we will just buy it from someone else. If it's not available from someone else, then tough, but we will never choose the seller for the product.

India has no brand loyalty.

You are assuming that India has a choice.

US is making the choice. Modi just need to confirm the choice made by the US.

 

[Hamza913]

I hope India chooses Russia over the US

If you love them so much why are you in America?

 

[airmarshal]

Ultimately USA wants to use India against China. And then like everywhere else, walk away from the mess.

The choice is India to make. It can take along both. US must not be allowed to dictate.

 

[randomradio]

You are assuming that India has a choice.

US is making the choice. Modi just need to confirm the choice made by the US.

Wokay, saar.

Ultimately USA wants to use India against China. And then like everywhere else, walk away from the mess.

The choice is India to make. It can take along both. US must not be allowed to dictate.

The US is not in a position to dictate. Their tone itself is more of a request rather than a demand when it came to the S-400.

 

[Trango Towers]

If Kashmir was resolved there would be no need for Pakistan or Indian to spend so much on defence. They would have money for poverty schools healthcare and all things that matter. Sadly the white man left us in a mess and we are so stupid that we continue

 

[Corona]

If Kashmir was resolved there would be no need for Pakistan or Indian to spend so much on defence. They would have money for poverty schools healthcare and all things that matter. Sadly the white man left us in a mess and we are so stupid that we continue

If Kashmir was resolved, we'll find the next thing to fight over and everything will be back on stride. Might even be as ludicrous as team captain america or team iron man, but we'll still be fighting. Simply moving the border won't fix 70 years of systematically instilled fear mongering. That'll take constructive steps between both populations, almost unperceived level of communications between the populations and a miracle in the way both governments run things.

 

[randomradio]

If you love them so much why are you in America?

Make money in America, buy weapons from Russia.

If Kashmir was resolved there would be no need for Pakistan or Indian to spend so much on defence. They would have money for poverty schools healthcare and all things that matter. Sadly the white man left us in a mess and we are so stupid that we continue

Pak Army has no interest in resolving the Kashmir issue. If we are going back to the past, then Nehru should never have stopped the 1947 war in the first place.

And a huge chunk of our military expenditure is geared towards tackling China also, so India's expenditure won't reduce regardless of a Kashmir resolution.

 

[fitpOsitive]

Hahaha.. India marries no country. USA better change her habits.

 

[Trango Towers]

Make money in America, buy weapons from Russia.



Pak Army has no interest in resolving the Kashmir issue. If we are going back to the past, then Nehru should never have stopped the 1947 war in the first place.

And a huge chunk of our military expenditure is geared towards tackling China also, so India's expenditure won't reduce regardless of a Kashmir resolution.

Idiot. Jahil and ignorant. Repeat the crap you hear in Bollywood news

 

[PurpleStone]

Hahaha.. India marries no country. USA better change her habits.

Modi is no Indira.



'This woman suckered us', said Nixon of Indira Gandhi
"She suckered us. Suckered us.....this woman suckered us." So said an enraged US president Richard Nixon of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after learning that war had broken out on the subcontinent in 1971.
DELHI Updated: Mar 02, 2010 12:35 IST
IANS

"She suckered us. Suckered us.....this woman suckered us." So said an enraged US president Richard Nixon of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after learning that war had broken out on the subcontinent on Dec 3, 1971, and Indian forces had made a decisive push towards then East Pakistan that it recognised as Bangladesh three days later.

Nixon, who had met Gandhi just a month earlier in Washington, had sought assurances from her that India would not take any precipitate military action pending efforts by the US to find a political solution that would not "shatter the cohension of West Pakistan" and end up "overthrowing President Yahya (Khan)" who was pivotal to America's China initiative afer 22 years of diplomatic freeze.

Nixon had then made it clear to Mrs Gandhi that "nothing could be served by the disintegration of Pakistan" and even warned darkly that "it would be impossible to calculate with precision the steps which other great powers might take if India were to initiate hostilities".

Nixon's presentations were heard with "aloof indifference" by Mrs Gandhi, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was quoted as telling author Kalyani Shankar in her just published book Nixon, Indira and India - Politics and Beyond (Macmillan/Rs. 445).

Nixon's frustration at not being able to make Mrs Gandhi back off from war reflected in his telephone conversation with Kissinger on Dec 6. Almost fumbling for words without breaking into expletives at the turn of the situation in the subcontinent at a time when Yahya Khan's propping up was imperative for American foreign policy interests, Nixon wondered if he was "too easy on that goddamn woman when she was here".


Even as Kissinger tried to pacify a fuming president by saying he was only following advice to be "gracious" to a visiting dignitary, Nixon agreed at one point with Kissinger that he should have probably "brutalised" her and followed up by threatening: "But let me tell you she is going to pay. She is going to pay."

Nixon even asked Kissinger whether the Chinese would make threatening moves towards India. But the Chinese, much to the chagrin of the Americans did not agree to "intimidate the Indians", as the author points out, because the Chinese thought that "independence for East Pakistan was a foregone conclusion.

"It (China) was prepared to endorse UN proposal for a standstill ceasefire and forgo a demand for mutual troop withdrawal," the book states.

When even the Soviets refused to put presssure on New Delh for a ceasefire, Nixon ordered the Seventh Fleet into the Indian Ocean in a threatening gesture. The Fleet, consisting of an aircraft carrier and four destroyers, was to move towards Karachi with the publicly stated aim that they would stand by for "possible evacuation" of Americans although the intention was to browbeat India in case the government in New Delh did not agree to an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal.

India did finally agree to a ceasefire, but that was only on Dec 17 after Indian forces marched into Dhaka (then Dacca). There was a ceasefire also in the west with India assuring that it had no desire to seize the territory of West Pakistan, an assurance it delivered to Wasington via Moscow.

The book provides a fascinating insight for foreign policy researchers into the Nixon era and his famous tilt towards Pakistan based on now declassified 'top-secret' documents and top-level telephone transcripts pertaining to Nixon's visit to India in 1969 and Mrs Gandhi's visit to Washington in 1971 that were obtained from the United States National Archives and the National Security Archives.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/delh...dira-gandhi/story-WGR773bfTnuAsEffYYvq5O.html