The United States has set up a first-ever country-specific cell at the Pentagon to accelerate its defence ties with India, a senior US official said on Wednesday. The India Rapid Reaction Cell will also streamline projects for co-development and co-production of hi-tech military equipment in India. Keith Webster, Director, International Cooperation Office of the Under Secretary of Defence for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, heads this cell.India is the only country to have a specific cell of its kind inside the Pentagon. In an interview to an Indian news agency PTI, Mr Webster said that India and the US had also started negotiations to jointly develop a next-generation aircraft carrier. This carrier would bolster the Indian Navy’s blue-water capabilities, he said. The two countries established a working group for building the aircraft carrier when US President Barack Obama visited India in January. Over the past few years, India has emerged as the world’s largest buyer of weapons systems as the arms build-up gathers momentum. Many of the weapons systems in which India is showing an interest make little sense for a country that faces no serious conventional threat from any of its neighbours.This procurement is fuelling an inevitable arms build-up in Pakistan too, which is in the midst of a weapons acquisition drive of its own. When India demonstrated its keenness to buy the French Rafale fighter jet in early summer, for instance, Pakistan announced its interest in buying the SU 35 from Russia.And more worryingly, as India ramps up its conventional capability, Pakistan increases its reliance on non-conventional capabilities as a cheaper alternative.This arms build-up by the two countries is hardly necessary in a region that badly needs to sow the seeds of cooperation rather than increase rivalry.And it is disappointing, as well as self-defeating for America that it should be facilitating the arms race for its own commercial purposes, especially since its foreign policy objectives in the region call for greater harmony and integration.It would be naïve to underestimate the power of greed and ego that is fuelling this regrettable enterprise. Rationality will need to shout to be heard in the midst of this turbo-charged arms build-up that is escalating in both countries, but the voice of reason and peace has rarely been needed more.Peace-minded constituencies on both sides need to similarly boost their efforts to be heard, and keep up the argument of regional cooperation and shared prosperity regardless of how difficult it might be to imagine these values in such times. South Asia has the benefit of being relatively removed from the growing conflicts to its east, and the rising tensions to its west.
pk.shafaqna.com
