INDO PACIFIC SECURITY PERSPECTIVES : UNITED STATES-INDIA STRAEGIC PARTNERSHIP TOUCHES NEW HEIGHTS 2020

Friday, October 23, 2020

UNITED STATES-INDIA STRAEGIC PARTNERSHIP TOUCHES NEW HEIGHTS 2020

The China Threat factor plaguing the security and stability of Indo Pacific Asia's vast landmass and maritime expanses has galvanised United States and India to touch new heights in 2020 in the two decades old US-India Strategic Partnership which evolved at the turn of the 21st Century.

The US-India Strategic Partnership in 2020 without the trappings of a formal military alliance and institutional mechanisms has yet all the mechanisms in the form of a series of " Defence Agreements" signed by both countries enabling and facilitating a wide spectrum of military cooperation and coordination between United States and India and their Armed Forces.

These Defence Agreements range from BECA (Basic Exchange& Cooperation Agreement); LEMOA ( Logistics Exchange Memorandum Agreement); to COMCASA (Communications Compatibility & Security Agreement) encompassing sharing of Geospatial Intelligence for precision targeting of Indian, use of each others logistics bases and facilities and facilitate United States to provide encrypted communications equipment.

Overarching the above are the Annual 2+2 Meets of the Foreign and Defence Ministers Dialogue for mutual discussion on security issues and defence exchanges cooperation. The Third Annual Dialogue is scheduled for the next week in New Delhi.

This year's Dialogue Meet will be significant as it comes against the backdrop of China's military clashes with India in Eastern Ladakh, South China Sea escalation by China and China's threatening and aggressive provocations against Taiwan.

Significantly, QUAD Initiative hat represents most intensely the new strategic heights that India has touched in US-India Strategic Partnership because it transcends the bilateral US-India security cooperation and extends to Multilateral Naval Cooperation between India and United States Indo Pacific Allies comprising Japan and Australia.

Concluding, suffice it to state, that in view of the burgeoning China Threat to Indo Pacific Security and Stability, United States and India have drawn closer to forge institutional mechanisms for greater coordination of their strategic convergences posed by China's recent military expansionist impulses.

In terms of perspectives it can be asserted that viewing the QUAD Initiative as a trend-setting indicator that binds India to the United States, Japan and Australia in 2020 inherently carries promises of the emergence of an "Asian NATO' with China intent on military aggrandisement regardless of military consequences which could rebound on its strategic waywardness.

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Dr Subhash Kapila—Academic & Professional Profile

Dr Subhash Kapila is a Graduate of the Royal British Army Staff College.UK.: has a Masters in Defence Science from Madras University with his thesis on ‘India’s Foreign Policy in Far East Asia’ and a Doctorate from Allahabad University with his thesis in 1994 on ‘Asia Pacific Security-2000 AD Perspectives’.

Dr Subhash Kapila combines a rich and varied professional experience of Indian Army (Brigadier) in criteria appointments on Command, Staff and Instructional. Indian Army service encompassed long tenures on India’s borders with China and Pakistan.

Dr Subhash Kaila’s professional exposures also include diplomatic assignments in United States, Japan, South Korea and also official tenures in UK and Bhutan. These years of diplomatic and official assignments afforded deep insights on Asia Pacific security challenges and China-watching from different perches.

Dr Subhash Kapila has authored two books--- ‘China-India Military Confrontation:21^st Century Perspectives’ (2015) and an earlier one on India’s Defence Policies & Strategic Thought-A Comparative Analysis’ (2004)

Dr Subhash Kapila has authored over nearly 2000 Papers on Geopolitical, Foreign Policy and Strategic topics of Major Powers like USA, China, Japan and regional issues of South Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East.

Dr Subhash Kapila has presented Papers at international forums in Russia, Japan, Turkey and Vietnam and National and University Seminars in India.

Invited for TV/Radio discussions by CNN, BBC, Pakistan Geo TV and multiple Indian Channels.

INDO PACIFIC REGION—GEOPOLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE

“Indo Pacific Region encompassing the vast geographical expanse from West Coast of the United States to the Eastern Littoral of Africa on the Indian Ocean and Australia in South Pacific has emerged in recent years as a fulcrum of global security and stability.

Competing security narratives led by the United States and a reactive hardly credible narrative by China challenges foreign policy and security policies directions of Major Powers in the Indo Pacific comprising United States. India, Japan and Australia.

Needless to highlight as so many academic treatises have already done so that Indo Pacific Security Template as a strategic construct and narrative emerged so as a narrative in the last decade generated by fears of China’s not so benign intentions manifested from Himalayan Heights of China Occupied Tibet borders with India to the Western Pacific seas, and more pointedly to the South China Sea where China has indulged in military aggression ad coercive brinkmanship to establish “Full Spectrum Dominance” endangering Indo Pacific Security as a whole.”------------Dr Subhash Kaila’s earlier writings.

“The Indo Pacific has assumed tectonic significance for a wide range of nations affirming their agency in an uncertain world. Far from being an obscure account of of words and maps, the narratives of Indo Pacific nations hands a great dilemma of the 21^st Century: how can other countries respond to a strong and coercive China without resorting to capitulation or conflict.” –Professor Rory Metcalf, Australian National University.

“In this century, the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean Rim which some refer as the Indo Pacific will become the world’s centre of gravity.”---Australian Defence Minister