US, India sign military logistics agreement

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...-logistics-agreement/articleshow/53921866.cms


  • US, India sign military logistics agreement
    Aug 30, 2016, 09.08 AM IST
    HIGHLIGHTS
    • India and US have signed Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).
    • LEMOA allows US and Indian militaries to use each other's assets and bases.
    • LEMOA, however, does not allow for basing of US troops in India.



    WASHINGTON: The United States and India signed an agreement+ on Monday governing the use of each other's land, air and naval bases for repair and resupply, a step toward building defence ties+ as they seek to counter the growing maritime assertiveness of China.

    Welcoming the signing of the bilateral 'Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement' (LEMOA), defence minister Manohar Parrikar and US defence secretary Ashton Carter said the pact will facilitate opportunities for "practical engagement and exchange".

    LEMOA facilitates the provision of logistical support+ , supplies, and services between the US and Indian militaries on a reimbursable basis, and provides a framework to govern them.

    "They agreed on the importance (that) this framework will provide to facilitate innovative and advanced opportunities in defence technology and trade cooperation. To this end, the US has agreed to elevate defence trade and technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with its closest allies and partners," said a joint statement after the pact was signed.

    According to the statement, the defence ties between the two countries is based on their "shared values and interests," and their "abiding commitment to global peace and security."

    During their meeting, Parrikar and Carter discussed the "wealth of progress" in bilateral cooperation and deepening strategic partnership between the United States and India.

    The US has agreed to elevate defence trade and technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with its closest allies and partners.

    A milestone in US-India defence ties

    The agreement, a relatively mundane one concerning day-to-day military logistics, is nonetheless a milestone in the US-India defence relationship because of the outsized political importance it had taken on in India, where it had touched on domestic sensitivities, experts said.

    The signing of the agreement will "make the logistics of joint operations so much easier and so much more efficient," US defence secretary Ash Carter said in a news briefing with defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday.

    The agreement will allow the Indian and US navies to have an easier time supporting each other in joint operations and exercises and when providing humanitarian assistance, Parrikar said.

    Washington's desire for deeper security cooperation with India had been complicated without the signing of the logistics agreement as well as two other pacts that would allow for secure communications and the exchange of nautical and other data. The agreements are considered routine between the United States and its other defence partners.

    But India has had concerns such an agreement would commit it to hosting US troops at its bases, or draw it into a military alliance with the United States and undermine its traditional autonomy. Carter and Parrikar reached an agreement "in principle" in April, but had yet to finalize the details.

    Carter has made closer military ties with India a priority, and established a special unit within the Pentagon last year to promote cooperation with that country. Parrikar's visit to Washington this week marks the sixth interaction between the two top defence officials.

    The signing of the logistics agreement indicates the priority the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi places on a closer defence relationship with the United States, said Benjamin Schwartz, until last year the India country director at the Pentagon.

    "For years, there has been tremendous misinformation put out into the Indian press about these agreements," said Schwartz, now with the US-India Business Council, which promotes trade ties between the two countries.

    "What the signing of this shows is that the Modi government is willing to take and suffer the short-term political criticism of signing these things for the longer-term benefit of building the defence relationship with the United States."

    Both Carter and Parrikar went to pains on Monday to make clear that the logistics agreement did not allow for basing of US troops in India.

    "It's not a basing agreement of any kind," Carter said.

    The debate over the logistics agreement had served as a vehicle for the distrust some of India's political class has towards the United States, said Shane Mason, a research associate at the Stimson Center. The United States had previously imposed sanctions on India related to its 1998 nuclear test, although the sanctions were eased later.

(Continued in link)
 

raja696

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Its clearly a looming sign on top circles that Chinese threat is real.

Lemoa is more useful to us than usa if chinese encircles us in war times and further block trade at scs.

Does Lemoa allows our war ships stay refuel and wait at usa west coast bases in times of war ?

Love India showing its claws to pakis and its proxy support chin...
 

sachin458377

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The Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) allows India and US militaries to access each other's military facilities for refueling and replenishment.
BEIJING:
Attempts by India to join US' alliance could "irritate" China, Pakistan or even Russia and bring "strategic troubles" to New Delhi while making it a center of geopolitical rivalries in Asia, China's state-run media commented today.
In an editorial written ahead of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter signing a logistics agreement, state-run Global Times said India may lose strategic independence if it leans towards the US.
The Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) allows India and US militaries to access each other's military facilities for refueling and replenishment.
"This is undoubtedly a leap forward in US-India military cooperation. US media highly applauded this deal, with Forbes hailing it as a 'war pact' and believing that India is shifting away from Russia, its Cold War ally, toward a new alliance with the US," the editorial said.
"If India hastily joins the US alliance system, it may irritate China, Pakistan or even Russia. It may not make India feel safer, but will bring strategic troubles to itself and make itself a center of geopolitical rivalries in Asia," it said.
"India holds dear its independence and sovereignty after squeezing out of the UK's colonialism. It views itself as a major power and is developing on the wave of the emerging countries," the editorial said.
While India has adopted a prudent attitude so far refraining from joining US alliance, some defense analysts expressed worries that India may lose strategic independence and warned that the pact may render New Delhi a "follower" of Washington, it said.
Observing that India attaches high importance to national security, the editorial said, "It feels it is an urgent task because its defense levels are a necessary condition of being a major power, rather than out of a sense of crisis that requires an intimacy to the US."
Due to its non-alignment policy, India has been given attention from all the major powers such as the US, Japan, China, and Russia in recent years, it noted.
"However, in recent years, Washington has deliberately wooed New Delhi to become its quasi-ally so as to impose geopolitical pressure on China. It is possible that the (Narendra) Modi administration is trying an unconventional way to lean toward the US with the logistics agreement," the editorial said.
 

airtel

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btw Russian media Analysis is Interesting ......


http://m.sputniknews.com/military/20160829/1044725072/lemoa-us-india-military-agreement.html



When Life Gives You LEMOA: Inside the Controversial US-Indian Military Agreement
12361
829
02:59 29.08.2016
As the US and India Defense Ministers prepare to sign a LEMOA treaty, which will enable the two country to use each other’s military bases, there is still a significant amount of confusion and controversy around the act.
Manohar Parrikar, the Defense Minister of India, has left to the US to meet with US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. This meeting is expected to end with signing of LEMOA act, a treaty which will enable the two countries to use each other's military infrastructure.



Interestingly, the media coverage description of the act is highly controversial. Forbes, for instance, is quick to say that LEMOA will enable "US armed forces… operate out of Indian bases."

"The US Navy plans to deploy 60 percent of its surface ships in the Indo-Pacific in the near future. Instead of having to build facilities virtually from the ground up, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US has the benefit of simple arrangements for the tremendous Indian facilities," Forbes's Charles Tiefer writes.

However, the Indian Defense ministry officials insist that no US troops will be deployed in India, and the bases will be used only for berthing or refueling of each other's warships.

"This pact that has been agreed in principle will only facilitate military logistics cooperation such as joint military exercises and did not entail stationing of any US troops on Indian soil," the officials said, adding that this agreement should not be viewed as a move by New Delhi to support Washington in forming any alliance against China.

Ironically, Forbes says exactly the opposite:



"For Prime Minister Modi, it is a major step for India away from its Cold War alliance with Russia, toward a new alliance with the U.S. (and Japan and Australia) to protect the Indian Ocean and the seas off Southeast Asia, especially from China."

While it seems quite obvious that both sides aim to represent the agreement, which has previously caused a significant amount of controversy within Indian Parliament and has been delayed several times, as their own diplomatic victory, the experts also share different opinions on the issue.

Defense Analyst C Uday Bhaskar believes that it is "India's interest in the long term in terms of being able to obtain fuel and logistics at short notice."

"At a time when India needs to maintain its presence in the region, this is a useful traction for India," he says, adding that the agreement is unlikely to be binding in nature and India will always have the right to refuse assistance.

Strategic Affairs expert Bharat Karnad, however, thinks different, and even says that Prime Minister Modi has "lost what little strategic sense he may have started out with."

"India is set to lose its sovereign decision-making status and strategic independence", he says, adding that LEMOA will still mark India as a secondary power and American camp follower.

Karnad notes that stationing of US troops in India will cause "social turmoil" among Indian citizens and, should India be pulled into a conflict against its allies — China or Russia — it would be a "disaster".
(China humara ally kab ban gaya ??)



According to head of Cyber Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation, Arun Mohan Sukumar, the Indian government should be very careful about this agreement and seek its own interest; otherwise it will have troubles "selling it at home".

"It is one thing for India to leverage the agreements to aid its role as a "net security provider" and another to be drawn into US-China rivalry in the region," he writes.

And, apparently, there is some strategic self-interest for India in this agreement, as, according to Dr. Rupakjyoti Borah, Research Fellow with Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, India seeks to sign the agreement before the US Presidential Elections in November.



Noting that the victory of Donald Trump will likely hurt US-Indian ties, Borah says that "it makes perfect sense for New Delhi to make hay while the sun shines."


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pmaitra

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The US needs access to Indian bases much more than India needs access to US bases.

India isn't going to invade Mexico, but US has operations in South East Asia, which may contain PRC.

On the other hand, the US has the habit of ditching its partners after its use is diminished.
 

Scarface

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http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/chin...terms-it-normal-cooperation-1452211?site=full


China Downplays India-US Logistics Agreement, Terms It 'Normal Cooperation'
We ourselves are downplaying the significance of this agreement,to protect our relations with Russia and it seems to be going well with them believing it,but it may send the Americans the wrong signal

Personally I'd call this what it is , a clear shift of India into the western bloc , wouldn't tout it and scream to the world but wouldn't deny it either,but I'll leave this to the diplomats.
 

Indx TechStyle

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Indo-US logistic pact is not agreement to set up bases: Manohar Parrikar & Ashton Carter

Parrikar and Carter were referring to the LEMOA that was signed by the two countries yesterday after more than a decade of discussion.
WASHINGTON: The defence pact signed by India and the US facilitating logistical support between the two militaries is not an agreement to set up bases, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his US counterpart Ashton Carter have said.
Parrikar and Carter were referring to the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) that was signed by the two countries yesterday after more than a decade of discussion.
"There is no provision for any base or any sort of activities to set up a base in India," Parrikar told reporters at a joint news conference with Carter after the two leaders held talks at the Pentagon.
LEMOA facilitates the provision of logistical support, supplies, and services between the US and Indian militaries on a reimbursable basis, and provides a framework to govern them.
This may include food, water, billeting, transportation, petroleum, oils, lubricants, clothing, medical services, spare parts and components, repair and maintenance services, training services, and other logistical items and services.
"It (LEMOA) doesn't have anything to do with the setting up of base. It's basically logistics support to each other's fleet, like supply of fuel, supply of many other things which are required for joint operations, humanitarian assistance and many other relief operations.
So, it basically will ensure that both navies can be supportive of each other in the joint venture operations we do, exercises we do," Parrikar told reporters in response to a question.
LEMOA is a very substantial enabler of the two countries to work together, the US Defence Secretary said.
"What it does is make possible and make easier operating together when we choose to. It doesn't by itself -- those agreements -- those are the things that the two governments would have to agree on a case by case basis. But when they do agree, this is an agreement that makes it all go so much more smoothly and efficiently," Carter explained.
"It is fully mutual. In other words, we grant one another completely equal access and ease under this agreement. It's not a basing agreement of any kind, but it does make the logistics of joint operations so much easier and so much more efficient," he said.
This agreement only provides an additional means to fund necessary support and requires the approval of both countries on a case-by-case basis.
For example, during a bilateral exercise with the US, the participant country's unit requires fuel for its equipment.
The unit cannot make the purchase unless it can pay directly and immediately.
A LEMOA agreement allows for the purchase by establishing a value for the purchase and the terms for payment, which could be replacement-in-kind or an equal-value exchange, Carter said.
READ MORE:
Manohar Parrikar|Logistic Pact|LEMOA|Ashton Carter
In brief, it's a fully balanced bilateral agreement contrary to the concerned expressed by some guys.
It doesn't harm anybody's sovereignty in any way (except China.:biggrin2:).
 

Mikesingh

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The Pakis and their Chinese masters seem really pissed off. In fact they're.....
Worry.gif
Worry.gif
:pound:
 

asianobserve

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Patterned after the Philippine-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the US no longer seeks permanent, cumbersome, visually inescapable military presence in other countries. Instead, it is pursuing a more or less temporary bases sharing in foreign countries whereby US forces will station very few logistical support units in selected military bases in foreign countries where US military assets can operate from, be maintained, refuel, rearm, etc. This is cheaper and politically less sensitive for both American domestic audience and citizens of the foreign country it has entered into a logistics agreement with.
 

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