The agreements have enhanced what the US terms as a ‘comprehensive global strategic partnership’ with India

India and the US have never been closer, militarily speaking, and that must count as one of the most remarkable features of bilateral ties under US President Donald Trump. Regardless of the outcome of the November 3 US presidential elections, the bilateral trajectory of nearly two decades firmed up over the past four years with the inking of three significant foundational military agreements. The agreements have enhanced what the US terms as a ‘comprehensive global strategic partnership’ with India.

The third and final agreement, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation (BECA), was signed in New Delhi on October 27 during the ‘2+2’ ministerial dialogue between the foreign and defence ministers of both countries. BECA is the last of what the US terms as ‘foundational agreements’ it has signed with India. They ease cooperation between their armed forces, who carry out more exercises with each other than they do with any other country.

The upcoming Malabar 2020 joint naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea will feature, besides India and the US, Quad alliance partners Japan and Australia. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad was recently revived by the four countries, and their first military exercise in 13 years is meant to address mutual concerns about a rising China in the Indo-Pacific, particularly its expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea. The US has repeatedly voiced concerns over China’s belligerence on the LAC (Line of Actual Control) in Ladakh and elsewhere in Asia. In a move not unconnected with events on land, it sent the USS Nimitz carrier strike group into the Bay of Bengal this July, a month after a clash between the Indian Army and China’s PLA in Galwan, the most violent between the two sides in 53 years.

The US is India’s second largest supplier of military hardware after Russia, with $20 billion (Rs 1.47 lakh crore) worth of arms deals completed or in the pipeline. India’s fleet of US C-17 transport aircraft and the P-8I maritime patrol aircraft are the largest outside the US. The upcoming $3 billion (Rs 22,000 crore) sale of 30 MQ9-B Sea Guardian armed drones could make India the largest operator of such unmanned craft outside the US.

The military agreements will enhance the effectiveness of the growing number of US military platforms in Indian service. BECA allows the Indian military to access the US’s trove of geospatial data, maps, flight information and hydrographic data, and also the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s information archives. These could sharpen the combat edge of platforms like the Sea Guardians and enable the sharing of real-time classified geospatial data. COMCASA, or the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement, signed in 2018, allows Indian military platforms to securely communicate with their US counterparts and obtain ‘common tactical picture’ fused from various sensors.

The US terms foundational agreements as prerequisites for forging close military ties with partner nations. They will certainly create a new structure that promises to define Indo-US strategic ties over the next few decades.