India-US to build strong, strategic defence ties: Report

WASHINGTON: As US President Barack Obama prepares to visit India, a prominent think tank has said that the two countries would build their strong bilateral defence ties based on the new strategic realities of Asia.

The defence relationship is one of the many bright spots in the overall bilateral relationship, said the National Bureau of Asian Research(NBR), a Washington-based think tank.

"It is expected that the United States and India will continue to develop a strong bilateral defense relationship, albeit one that looks less like an alliance than a partnership based on shared goals.

US and Indian armed forces will operate together more frequently, and US equipment will be purchased in larger quantities by India, in part reflecting the new strategic realities of Asia and a strengthened US-Indian relationship," NBR said in its report on India.

As the United States and India continue to build their newly strengthened relationship, both partners face challenges in the process, it said adding that in the realm of operational cooperation, greater steps toward embracing integration that would help check maritime adventurism by any other power inevitably will breed concerns about whether Indian foreign policy remains independent.

"Similarly, agreements to provide advanced US military equipment also require agreement to US rules and practices on the use of such equipment that test Indian proprieties and will complicate India's ties with other suppliers of military equipment, including Russian and European companies," the NBR said.

Looming over these bilateral security issues are the differentiated security challenges each country faces in managing complex security relationships with Pakistan and China, it noted.

"Certainly, however, bilateral cooperation on the internal challenges the Indian Armed Forces face--structural reform, domestic counterinsurgency, personnel acquisition and management reform, among others--provides opportunities that might mitigate some of the other challenges as well as help to build longer-term collaborations that will be in both countries' interests," it said.