India and the US have signed a framework agreement for defence cooperation for the next 10 years, enhancing their partnership and aiming for regional stability.
'Government officials use Gmail and ordinary phones without basic security consciousness.' 'Interoperability, especially in joint exercises with countries like the US, worries me.' 'It often means we open our systems to them, but they don't reciprocate.' 'They could have kill switches in their systems and might even be able to affect ours.'
'Analysts see BECA as a 'force multiplier' for India.' 'But China too is known to have such capabilities.' 'The military gap with China will continue to remain a fact of life, BECA notwithstanding,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
It is believed that the signing of BECA and the follow-up arrangements between the sides will allow India to use American inputs on geospatial intelligence and to enhance military accuracy of automated hardware systems and weapons like cruise, ballistic missiles and drones.
India and the US have agreed to work together to draft a comprehensive framework on defence cooperation, aimed at structuring the bilateral collaboration for the 2025-2035 period. The framework will cover multiple domains in land, air, maritime and space, and will focus on intelligence, logistics, operational and industrial engagement. The agreement comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned trip to Washington, where he is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump to discuss boosting India-US cooperation in the areas of trade, energy and defence.
"These developments clearly negate the argument that India's mainstreaming in the international export control regimes will further the non-proliferation objectives of these regimes," Pak's Foreign Office said.
The China threat continues to resonate in the strategic partnership between India and the USA, points out Rup Narayan Das.
'The goal seems to be that we do not invest further in our system to make our system more accurate and more reliable or more global in reach,' an ISRO source tells Shivanand Kanavi.
Reports (not denied by India) that the USA had 'for the first time provided real-time details to their Indian counterparts on the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion' into Tawang at the LAC in December 2022, helping India thwart China's expansionist designs, show how operationally effective the USA-India friendship has become on the ground. A engaging excerpt from Sreeram Chaulia's must-read new book, Friends: India's Closest Strategic Partners.
Dominic Xavier offers his take on the 2+2 meeting and what it achieved.
The defence ministry on Thursday accorded its approval to procure 30 MQ-9B Predator drones from the US to crank up the surveillance apparatus of the armed forces, especially along the frontier with China, people familiar with the development said.
The agreement will allow sharing of high-end military technology, classified satellite data and critical information between the two countries.
The American platforms at the exercise 'Cope India' that started off Kalaikunda will also include a fleet of F-15 E fighter jets, C-130 and C-17 transport aircraft.
The armies of India and the US on Tuesday began an over two-week mega military exercise at a military facility in Uttarakhand with the aim of exchanging best practices and tactics in sync with growing defence ties between the two countries.
Prices in the domestic market are increasing because there is a demand pull, and internationally, prices have gone up.
We do not know, because there has been no discussion, no transparency and most likely no real thinking on this matter at our end, observes Aakar Patel.
The US remained "watchful" over developments along India's frontier with China as it cannot take its eyes off the regional security issues, a senior American official said on Wednesday against the backdrop of the over 29-month border standoff in eastern Ladakh that has significantly frayed ties between the two neighbours.
The two-plus-two dialogue will be held on Tuesday. A host of crucial bilateral, regional and global issues including China's efforts to expand influence in the Indo-Pacific region as well as its aggressive behaviour in eastern Ladakh is likely to figure in the talks.
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mark T Esper will visit India on October 26 and 27 for the high-level dialogue aimed at further boosting defence, security and global strategic ties between the two countries.
The new framework of the ministerial dialogue was initiated in order to provide a forward-looking vision for the strategic partnership between the two countries.
'A breakthrough in eastern Ladakh leading to disengagement and creation of a buffer zone will obviate the need of military deployment through the winter months ahead,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India and the United States have signed an agreement for cooperation in the development of Air-Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (ALUAV), in yet another step to further expand bilateral defence and military cooperation.
GSOMIA does not cover the exchange of classified information with Indian private industry. Washington wanted this covered too, given New Delhi's emphasis on the proposed 'strategic partnership' model of procurement.
With the situation in Ladakh tense and no resolution in sight the trigger to take the India-US relationship to a transformational one is already there, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
Severely critical of China, Pompeo, cited killing of Indian Army personnel in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in a clash with the Chinese military, and asserted that both India and the US are taking steps to strengthen cooperation against all threats and not just those posed by the Chinese Communist Party.
'It will be a repeated folly to ever think that China will not attack us.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cut fuel subsidies while slapping additional fuel taxes on unblended transport fuels in the latest Union Budget. The former will hit the rural poor, households that secured a subsidised LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a programme that was partly instrumental in helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win the 2019 general elections. The latter will pretty much hurt the entire population after it kicks in from October. That's what it looks like. Or, perhaps, it's not as it appears to be, at least on the subsidy front.
Here's a fresh collection of the most Weird, True and Funny News from the across the globe.
Defending champion Andy Murray was beaten 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-2 by Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon on Wednesday.
China on Tuesday urged US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to stop sowing discord between Beijing and countries in the region, undermining regional peace and stability, amidst his visit to India for a high-level dialogue aimed at further ramping up their overall defence and security ties, and boost strategic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
The in-person talks are taking place at a time when India is locked in a tense standoff with China in eastern Ladakh and the Trump administration's growing friction with Beijing over a host of issues including trade tariff and the Chinese military's offensive manoeuvres in the South China Sea.
A robotic submarine deployed to locate the missing Malaysian plane's black boxes on the floor of the Indian Ocean on Tuesday aborted its first search as it encountered water deeper than its operating limits of 4.5 km.
Prasoon Joshi, president, McCann Worldgroup South Asia, says creativity can flourish irrespective of scale, but needs a culture of fluidity.
Zinedine Zidane's infamous head-butt on Italian Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final has been immortalised in a statue now on display in Paris.
With his hopes of a French Open final fading, Novak Djokovic even requested to have the Chatrier Court surfaced hosed down as he withered in the face of a Rafa Nadal firestorm on Friday.
Raja Sen lists the 10 truly undeserving Oscar winners through the years.
An angry Pakistan on Thursday slammed a United States move to freeze aid worth $ 700 million, saying it was "not based on facts and takes a narrow vision of the overall situation", in the latest sign of the fraying bilateral ties. "We believe that the move in the US Congress is not based on facts and takes a narrow vision of the overall situation," said Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit.
With her latest masterstroke, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has made Congress lose its credibility in the eye of the aam admi, says Sheela Bhatt
Concerned over the plight of patients after withdrawal of the cashless treatment facility by some hospitals at the behest of PSU insurance firms, noted heart surgeon Naresh Trehan on Monday said all-out efforts are underway to resolve the issue.
Anecdotes on Leander Paes flew thick and fast as India's tennis greats, former and present, came together to celebrate the 12-time Grand Slam winner's 21 years of representing the nation in Davis Cup.
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