Wednesday, December 5, 2018

AUG 18 IR India and the USA 2+2 dialogue

I NDI A USA 2+2 TA LK S

Why in News?

Recently, India and the USA held the first edition of their 2+2 dialogue involving Indian External Affairs and Defence Ministers and their American counterparts in New Delhi, where they also signed long -pending Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA).

Major outcomes of the talk

Signing of COMCASA: India and the USA began a new generation of military and security cooperation by signing Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA).
Setting  up of  a hotline  between  External  Affairs  Minister  and Defence  Minister  with  their  American counterparts:  this will help maintain regular high-level communication on emerging developments.
Tri-service exercise: India and U.S. will hold a first-ever tri-service exercise on the east coast of India in 2019 and further increase personnel exchanges between the two militaries and defense organizations.
Deepening of maritime cooperation in Western Indian Ocean: the ministers committed to start an exchange between the US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and the Indian Navy, announced deployment of an Indian liaison officer at NAVCENT, which is incharge of naval operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the oil rich Gulf Countries.
Expressed commitment towards working together on regional and global issues, including in bilateral, trilateral and quadrilateral formats: meeting also focused on regional stability in South Asia, South-East Asia and Indo-Pacific and both sides also expressed support for an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process.
Promoting defence innovation: a Memorandum of Intent was signed between the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Indian Defence Innovation Organization — Innovation for Defence Excellence (DIO-iDEX), which will look into  joint projects  for co-production  and co-development  projects  through the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI).
Negotiations on Industrial Security Annex (ISA): The two defence ministers also announced readiness to begin negotiations on an Industrial Security Annex (ISA) that would support closer defence industry cooperation and collaboration. An ISA is required to enable private Indian participation in defence production and is particularly important as India opens up defence manufacturing to the private sector in a big way.

About Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA)
•   COMCASA is one of the four foundational agreements that the U.S. signs with allies and close partners to
facilitate interoperability between militaries and sale of high end technology.
COMCASA, an India-specific version of the Communication and Information on Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA), comes into force immediately and is valid for a period 10 years. Both countries will implement this agreement in a manner that is consistent with the national security interests of the other.

Significance of COMCASA
Facilitate access to advanced defence systems and enable India to optimally utilise its existing US -origin platforms: Indian armed forces will get to fully exploit the capability of the military platforms procured from the US. For instance, the P-8I reconnaissance aircraft currently operating at limited capacity.
India will get access to Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System (CENTRIXS): CENTRIX is the secure communication  system  network of the US. Navy ships with CENTRIXS  systems on board can communicate securely with the U.S. Navy when needed and can benefit from the wider situational picture of the region as they have a large number of ships and aircraft deployed.
Bolsters India’s defence and enhances its capacity to project power into the Indo -Pacific region: it would enable Indian military to get a better picture of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) which is seeing increasing Chinese movements.
Ensures interoperability between military aircraft and other vehicles within India and with other countries: It improves India’s ability to fight alongside the other global navies with similar equipment that are major players in the Indo-Pacific, such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and Singapore.

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•   Promotes modernisation and technological advancement of defence equipment.
COMCASA allows us to utilise US communications core that is among the best in the world: During Doklam standoff, for instance, India benefitted from US intelligence on the placement of Chinese troops on the plateau in the high Himalayas. However, in absence of a foundational agreement on sharing of sensitive intelligence such as the COMCASA, US inputs were subject to a time-lag.

Concerns with the COMCASA Agreement:

Allow U.S. Navy access to India’s own secure communication network and also that the information shared with the U.S. will be accessible to Pakistan: this agreement may harm India’s strategic autonomy by making its own communication network vulnerable to US spying.
US may manipulate critical decision making: Some critics are concerned that the US will retain control over its equipment sold to India under this pact and may manipulate decision-making.

Way Forward

India had signed the General Security Of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) in 2002 and the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016. The last one remaining is the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation (BECA), signing which would complete the four foundational agreements that US have with its closest allies.
From the increased tempo of FONOPs (Freedom of Navigation Operations) in the South China Sea to the Quad to renaming the Pacific Command as the Indo-Pacific Command to the latest US Strategy document, the US administration is demonstrating greater stability and commitment to balancing China.
Talks are ongoing on granting waiver for India from US sanctions on Russia and Iran as it was said that USA doesn’t intend to penalise great strategic partners like India. A waiver provision has now been introduced to cover India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Launch of the 2+2 Dialogue aims to provide a positive, forward-looking vision for the India-U.S. strategic partnership and to promote synergy in their diplomatic and security efforts.

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