US-India pact

Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parekar has finally signed the expected defence pact between the US and India, which, like in the past, will have a huge impact on Pakistan. This is not the first such agreement. There was a similar arrangement between the two countries during the time of the Bush administration. If we look into the past, US-India military cooperation started in 1962, after India received a sound drubbing at the hands of China’s PLA. During that time, Nehru dumped his much trumpeted ‘Non-Aligned’ status, and allowed CIA to launch U-2 missions over China from an Indian air base in Odisha (Orissa).Washington was also permitted to use Indian air space for U-2 missions from out of the US base in Thailand, to provide information on Chinese troops movement in the NEFA and Aksai Chin near Ladakh.

The US also helped India build Four Mountain Divisions meant to be deployed against China, which were later used to occupy Pakistan’s Siachen glaciers, and off course, the US preferred to look the other side. Experts have very honestly and clearly forewarned that this India-US pact will widen the already huge gap between the conventional armed forces of India and those of Pakistan. And just as India used US built mountain divisions against Pakistan, one cannot rule out the ‘greater’ possibility – that India may again use these ‘new facilities’ against Pakistan.

Abid Mahmud Ansari

Islamabad