Vol. 10, Issue : 9
September 2018
Oppose Military Treaties with US Imperialism!
With the signing of Communications
Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA)
with the US imperialism in the first week of
September, India signed three of the four
“fundamental” agreements with US. This means
India is now a military partner of US imperialism
almost on par with NATO countries. The last of the
four military treaties Basic Exchange of
Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation
(BECA) would be signed soon. This marks the
journey of Indian rulers on the road of subjugation
of India to the hegemonic designs of US
imperialism.
The India-US Defence framework agreement
signed by the UPA-I government in 2005 was the
precursor to the nuclear deal. After the advent of
the Modi government in 2015, during the Obama
visit, India signed up on the Joint Vision Statement
for the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region.
This was a declaration that India is a part of the US
strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. In return, in 2016,
India was certified to be a Major Defence Partner
of the United States – a status given to NATO
countries and military allies in Asia, like Japan and
South Korea. The Modi government renewed the
Defence Framework Agreement for another ten
years in 2015. It followed this up with the signing of
the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of
Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016. This agreement
enables US naval ships and air force planes to use
Indian naval and air bases for re-fuelling,
maintenance and repairs on a regular basis. By
this agreement, American warplanes or naval ships
can use Indian facilities while conducting operations
against third countries.
The first two-plus-two ministerial talks between
India and The US were held on September 6. The
US Secretary of State , Mike Pampeo and Secretary
of Defence, James Mattis came to New Delhi to
hold talks with their Indian counterparts, Sushma
Swaraj and Nirmala Sitaraman. This meeting
signed COMCASA which is supposed to provide
critical defence technology to the Indian armed
forces, but for a huge cost. India has to allow US
military inspectors to enter Indian bases for
continuous inspection of supplied technology. And
India should not buy any equivalent technology from
third country, meaning Russia.
Under this agreement, the US military
personnel will monitor the equipment supply to
ensure that its confidentiality is not breached. It
will entail opening Indian military bases for US
inspectors to check the communication system. It
will also enable the United States to monitor
communications within the Indian military. Further,
it will ensure that sophisticated weaponry brought
from countries like Russia will become
incompatible with other weapon systems.
India’s succumbing to the US strategic designs
in Asia has been more forth coming in the joint
statement issued after the 2+2 meeting. It was
decided to establish secure hotline
communications between the foreign ministers and
the defence ministers of the two countries. The
US has the largest number of military exercises
with India amongst all the other countries in the
Organ of the Central Committee of CPI(ML)