The unprecedented move of the US
The US is preparing a military aid package for India to deepen its security relationship and reduce its dependence on weapons. RussiaIndia Times quoted people knowledgeable about the matter said.
Accordingly, the funding package under consideration will include foreign military funding of up to 500 million USD, which will make India one of the largest aid recipients after Israel and Egypt.
It is unclear when the deal will be announced, or what weapons will be on the list.
The effort is part of a large initiative by the administration of President Joe Biden to offer India a long-term security partner, despite the country’s repeated support of Russia on a number of issues, according to the report. a senior US official.
The official added that Washington wants to be seen as a reliable partner of India and the administration is working with other countries, including France, to ensure Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has the equipment. necessary.
While India is diversifying its military platforms away from dependence on Russia, the US wants to make that happen faster, the official said.
The big challenge remains how to provide India with key platforms such as fighter planes, naval ships and battle tanks. The financial package being discussed will not help much when these systems could be worth billions or tens of billions of dollars.
The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not comment on this report. Officials at the State Department and the US Embassy in New Delhi also did not respond to questions.
India is the world’s largest buyer of Russian weapons, although the two have since narrowed their relationship. Over the past decade, India has purchased more than $4 billion in military equipment from the US and more than $25 billion from Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which collects data on arms transfers.
India’s reliance on Russian weapons to balance its neighbors China and Pakistan is also thought to be part of the reason it still backs Moscow on some of its entanglements with the West.
Depends on Russia
While the United States and its allies were initially frustrated with India, countries began to seek to attract Prime Minister Modi’s administration as a key security partner – including building a front against India. with China in the Indo-Pacific region.
Prime Minister Modi is set to attend a summit with President Biden next week in South Korea. The meeting will include the leaders of the Quartet, a partnership between the US, India, Japan and Australia.
Mr. Modi also received an invitation to join the G7 in Germany next month
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin raised his position on China during a press conference in April with Foreign Minister Antony Blinken, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
“We are doing all of this because the United States supports India as the defense industry leader in the Indo-Pacific and a provider of security networks in the Indo-Pacific,” said Austin. area.
“And we all understand the challenges facing there.”
Links between the US and India have steadily increased over the past two decades, with the two reaching agreements that have allowed for increased interoperability between their military platforms.
Support for India is a rare point of bipartisan unity in Washington, and the Biden administration has signaled that it has no interest in punishing New Delhi for its decision to buy the S-400 missile defense system from China. Russia recently.
Previously, Turkey’s purchase of this system had deeply damaged the relationship of the US with its NATO ally.
However, it remains to be seen how far India will go in accepting US military support. In the past, Russia has supplied most of India’s military hardware, including fighter jets and missiles, as well as most of the country’s tanks and helicopters.
According to people with knowledge of the situation, the Modi government has told the US that solutions to completely replace Russian arms imports are too expensive.
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