The move is the latest registration of the success that Washington has had over the past several years in pulling the Indian government into its political orbit. Similar progress in transforming the Pakistani government into a staunch—even if unstable—U.S. ally over the same period has shifted the political map in the region decidedly in Washington’s favor.

The new military pact notes that “the U.S.-India defense relationship has advanced in a short time to unprecedented levels of cooperation.”

The agreement follows several other moves in this direction since 2001. This includes a number of joint U.S.-Indian military exercises, beginning with six major exercises in 2002 alone.

A close relationship with the Indian government gives Washington greater access to strategic sea routes from East Asia to the Middle East and North Africa and has provided it with an important bulwark against neighboring China. A key aspect of this is Indian collaboration with Washington on the extension of a missile defense shield aimed at China. Efforts to “expand collaboration relating to missile defense” are part of the new military accord.

While Moscow remains India’s largest military supplier—a holdover from the Indian rulers’ close military, economic, and political ties to the former Soviet Union—the U.S. government is loosening restrictions on trade and joint manufacturing of strategic weapons with New Delhi. In March, the Pentagon authorized a deal to sell F-16 fighter jets to the Pakistani military. Washington has made it clear that New Delhi, too, can replace its large air fleet of mainly Russian fighter aircraft with the U.S.-made F-16s or F-18s.

Washington’s ability to tie the Indian and Pakistani governments more closely into its foreign policy objectives has also led to steps by the U.S. rulers to deescalate the decades-old conflict between the two nuclear-armed states over Kashmir.  
 
Nuclear power issue
Indian defense minister Pranab Mukherjee was in Washington in late June to sign the accord. During his visit he met with his U.S. counterpart, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Vice President Richard Cheney.

During his visit, Mukherjee asked Washington to drop its sanctions on trade in nuclear technology with India. In a June 27 presentation at the Carnegie Endowment in the U.S. capital he explained that India imports 70 percent of its energy supplies. That figure may rise to as high as 85 percent in the next two decades. According to World Bank figures, half of the 1.1 billion people living in India have no access to electricity.

“If India is to realize its economic potential, India needs alternative sources of energy,” Mukherjee said. “Foremost among those available is nuclear energy. India has indigenously developed technologies for nuclear energy. But…India faces serious impediments of access to materials and components.”  
 
 
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