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U.S. defence secretary Robert Gates will visit New Delhi later this month to lobby for the sale of American weaponry though commercial and foreign military sale route, as well as boosting active engagement bilateral exercises between the defence forces of the two countries.
“On the top of his agenda is to put the sale of Javelin antitank guided missiles and ultra-light howitzers through a foreign military sales route.” said a diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.
Of late, New Delhi has made some reservation to The Pentagon about the rapid sale of military hardware from the United States to Pakistan; which India believes is Islamabad trying to reinforce its conventional capabilities against India.
“In addition, India does not want to be labelled as a sole arms market of American weaponry, as it has closed its military technical pact with Russia and defence cooperation with 45 other countries.” say sources in the Indian defence ministry.
Sources further pointed out that India has been victim to American military sanctions in the past, and that has somewhat blocked indigenous efforts in defence research and development.
In July last year, India and the United States had already decided to finalize a standard text for an end-use monitoring programme of military equipment that the US sells to India. Sources note that Washington now wants New Delhi to sign a Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) and a Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA). Currently India has strong reservations about CISMOA, but the LSA is under examination.
India has already contracted six Lockheed Martin-made C-130J Hercules aircraft for $1.1 billion, and six Boeing-made P8I maritime surveillance aircraft at a cost of $2.1 billion.
In addition, the two countries are also discussing the sale of Stryker ground-fighting vehicles. In November, the Indian Army issued requests for information to buy 100 armoured personnel carriers that can be transported in aircraft and by ships. The eight-wheeled Stryker all-terrain vehicles, made by General Dynamics, are estimated to cost upwards of $1.3 million each.
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