The Indo-US military alliance that isn’t

While explaining that the intention behind the “transformation of US-India relations” pursued by former US president George W. Bush was not to contain China, Robert Blackwill, former US ambassador to India, once remarked, a bit mischievously, “...there is no better way to clear a room of Indian strategists than to advocate containing China”. This witty formulation captures an important aspect of the public debate that has ensued, albeit a bit late, in the wake of India and the US moving forward on the three “foundational agreements,” namely, the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), the Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA), and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA).

In their fourth meeting held – within a year – last week, US secretary of defense Ashton Carter and defense minister Manohar Parrikar arrived at an “in-principle agreement” over “a Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement,” or LSA. The two sides will continue to work on CISMOA and BECA.