lEMOA is a huge boost to India-US bilateral
The signing of the military logistics agreement by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his US counterpart Ashton Carter in Washington, DC earlier this week is by far the most important development in the India-US relationship in recent years. The logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement has been in the works for more than 10 years — it became a major talking point soon after the nuclear deal was signed in 2005. That deal brought about a generational change in the India-US bilateral but couldn't be leveraged to its full potential in the years ahead. The blame for this must be placed at the doorstep of the Congress-led UPA regime. After the Modi Government came to power in 2014, the India-US bilateral received a boost (as did Indian foreign policy in general) and lEMOA found its way back to the priority table. Still, delivering the agreement wasn't a cakewalk, and it took a lot of prepping not just among lawyers and diplomats preparing the text but also by politicians and civil society advocating in favour of the deal, before Parrikar and Carter could actually sign on the dotted line. lEMOA faced significant opposition from left-leaning sections of the Indian establishment that are still committed to an obsolete Cold War-era notion of strategic autonomy and remain ideologically opposed to strengthening ties with the US. There was also some well-meaning but nevertheless misguided criticism from armchair experts who believed that signing the deal would allow American GIs to overrun Indian military bases or that India would be drawn into American military misadventures in different parts of the world. Thankfully, these arguments have been effectively neutralised, and the public at large apprised of what this deal is actually all about — a mundane logistics agreement that will allow Indian and American militaries, particularly the Navies, to cooperate with each other as and when they choose to do so. Both Navies already work closely with each other — this will increase as India seeks a greater role as regional security provider in the Indo-Pacific — and an agreement such as lEMOA only helps streamline and put on auto-pilot those functions and processes, such as refueling, docking payments etc, that are currently being done on a case-by-case basis. The resultant efficiency will be particularly beneficial, for example, during Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief operations such as the recent Operation Raahat in Yemen.
lEMOA comes not a day too soon, and it is a big step towards the India-US bilateral realising its potential as the ‘partnership of the 21st century'. Given this backdrop, it is disappointing that India's political establishment has shied away from giving this deal the importance it deserves. The Congress, in keeping with its cussed Opposition act, has rehashed discredited arguments and essentially accused the Modi Government of selling out to the US. It could have instead sought a share of the victory pie by reminding the public that it was the UPA Government which had arguably set the ball rolling in 2005. The ruling BJP has also underplayed the significance of the deal when it should have taken full credit for shaping a more assertive and confident foreign policy.