Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

Credits- Flickr/ MEA India Source- The National Interest Author- Uma Purushothaman Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US last week imparted new energy into the Indo-US relationship with consolidation of relations in areas such as nuclear, defense, clean energy and counter terrorism. However, with no great breakthroughs announced, much was also left unsaid. First, let's look at what was accomplished. Defense ties were significantly augmented. The elevation by the US of India to a 'major defense partner' means that like US allies, India is now eligible to receive more advanced and sensitive technology, including dual use technology, from the US even though the defense relationship will remain primarily a commercial buyer-seller relationship. America’s refusal to export dual use technology to India has long been a sore point with Indian policy makers. Of all the areas in which the US and India have cooperated in the last decade, defense h

Image Source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- United States Department of State Source- The Diplomat Author- Alyssa Ayres This post is the first of a series looking at how India and South Asia will feature in the American presidential election of 2016. Hillary Clinton’s April 12, 2015 presidential campaign launch kicked the U.S. presidential race for 2016 into higher gear. It’s also the first American campaign announcement to garner significant media attention in India. Due to her long history with India—as first lady, a senator, and secretary of state—Clinton is a known quantity in the region and has a clearly articulated policy record on South Asia, unlike other presidential candidates. One Indian paper covered her campaign launch with the headline, “Hillary hearts India.” That background makes it easier to assess how a possible Clinton administration might approach ties with India. First and foremost, she sees India as a crucial part of U.S. strategy in a world inc

Image credits- Flickr/ MEA Official gallery, Government of India Source- The Diplomat Author- Jack Detsch Though President Obama has pledged to keep 12,000 American troops in Afghanistan through the end of the year, it’s no secret that the White House’s focus on the war-torn country is waning. When those troops, largely still in place to train and equip the fledging Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and Afghan National Army (ANA), finally depart the country, Kabul will need a new patron to guarantee its security. Who will step up? A new policy innovation memo authored by Alyssa Ayres, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations reframes that question as a conversation. For Ayres, Washington must work with Delhi to stabilize Afghanistan’s fragile economy, military, and institutions while doing as much as possible to quell Pakistani anxieties. Can that approach succeed? It depends on where you look. On Thursday, a green

INS Mysore -D60 ( Image credits- Indian Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Jhinuk Chowdhury If you believe the hype, India is intensifying its ocean diplomacy to counter the growing influence of China in the Indian Ocean. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-nation visit to Sri Lanka, Seychelles, and Mauritius in March has been seen in this light. But that doesn’t explain what’s really happening. The power tectonics in the region are not between India and China, but are a result of Beijing hedging against Washington’s presence in the region. In the Indian Ocean, Delhi is increasingly aligning with the role that the U.S. wants it to play — that of a “net security provider.” The Indian Ocean bears two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments, one-third of its bulk cargo, and half of its container traffic, and serves as a key trade route between East Asia and Europe. Both the U.S. and China have high commercial stakes here. While the U.S. hopes to secure its trade routes

Image credits- MEA Official gallery Source- The Diplomat Author- Rohan Joshi On December 3, 1971, while Indian and Pakistani forces were engaged in pitched land and air battles, then-U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger convened a meeting of the National Security Council’s Washington Special Actions Group (WSAG). “I’m getting hell every half hour from the President that we are not being tough enough on India,” Kissinger is reputed to have said to the WSAG, “…he does not believe we are carrying out his wishes. He wants to tilt in favor of Pakistan.” By the ninth day of the war and with Indian troops barely 100 kilometers away from Dacca, the capital of East Pakistan, the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Enterprise sailed into the Bay of Bengal ostensibly on a rescue and relief mission for stranded U.S. citizens in East Pakistan. Although this did little to influence the eventual outcome of the 1971 India-Pakistan war — Pakistani forces surrendered to the Indian army

Image credits- Flickr / MEA Official gallery Source- The Diplomat Author- Harsh V. Pant Just a year back, the world’s largest and oldest democracies seemed on a collision course over the Khobragade affair. Today, thanks to deft diplomacy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team, Washington and Delhi stand on the cusp of a potentially transformative moment in their bilateral ties. When Modi visited the U.S. in September, his domestic critics wanted to discredit him by asking where the substance was. They argued that Modi’s visit was about style; that the optics overpowered the real issues that were bedeviling the relationship. When Modi invited Obama as the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in Delhi, the critics came back arguing that there was little point to inviting Obama, who had become a lame-duck president with the defeat of the Democrats in November 2014 elections. But what Modi and Obama have been able to accomplish in the last two days underscor

Source- The Eurasia Review Author- Dr Subash Kapila India under Modi Sarkar sits atop the strategic pyramid with Russia and the United States at the base at opposing ends intending to reinforce their respective Strategic Partnerships with India to their advantage. Russia has had a long standing and time-proven Strategic Partnership with India until its misconceived recent Defence and Security Agreement with Pakistan. President Putin’s recent visit to New Delhi retrieved the Russia-India Strategic Partnership Strategic Partnership by offering explanations for its Pakistan-policy change and with a slew of military and nuclear-related agreements to bring back the Russia-India Strategic Partnership on the rails. India repaid the strategic trust reposed by Russia in India’s rising power by awarding nearly $ 100-115 billion worth of contracts to Russia. The US-India Strategic Partnership is only a decade or so old and this time span stood marked by strategic bumps arising fro

Ashton Carter Source- The National Interest Author- Shashank Joshi After a week of swirling rumors, Ashton Carter, the deputy defense secretary from 2011-2013, has been all-but-announced as President Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of defence. Although Carter now needs to get confirmed, and will face particularly strong grilling on his views on US strategy in Iraq and Syria, it looks as though his confirmation will be a great deal smoother than Hagel's tortuous process: Carl Levin, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has said “he would be a great choice,” and Levin's successor come January, John McCain, has expressed approval. India will be watching Carter's path through Congress with particular interest. On Wednesday, the Indian news agency IANS headlined its report “India friend Ashton Carter is Obama pick.” The New York Times' South Asia bureau chief called Carter “one of India's favorite US officials,” the defense journ

Image credits- Flickr/ MEA Official Source- The Hindustan Times Authors- John Yoo & Riddhi Dasgupta For Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stimulate India’s economy, a new balance of power must emerge in Asia. As the world’s most powerful democracies, India and the United States should form an alliance. A mutual defence treaty will maintain regional peace and security, counter rising threats to the liberal economic order, and promote the postwar status quo that will generate India’s rejuvenation. With the end of the Cold War, the falling out between Pakistan and the US, and China’s rise, the timing is perfect for an India-US accord. Defence cooperation between the two nations remains strong. In 2005, the US and India agreed to nuclear cooperation. Last year, India imported approximately $2 billion of military equipment from the US, a significant increase from $237 million in 2009. Today, the US is the Indian Army’s most frequent partner for military exercises. Am

Image credits- Flickr/ MEA Sources- The National Interest Author- Melissa S. Hersh, Ajay Lele According to the insightful, Nobel Prize winning Amartya Sen, India is prone to being mischaracterized. Accordingly, the United States must see the bigger picture and look beyond India’s fickleness and vacillation in order to recognize that there is a bidirectional relationship that needs to be maintained. This lesson is important to recall during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit last week. As India’s foreign-policy tentacles reach further east and west, Washington’s expectations for U.S.-Indian relations need to remain steady. While India can be a fulcrum for leveraging U.S. interests in both Central and East Asia, it should also be an anchor partner that practices a different brand of democracy that may align with the United States on many—but not all—things. The United States should support India in its efforts to broaden its neighborhood interests and should no