Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US on 22-25 September 2021 was significant for a number of reasons. His delegation includes External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Shringla among others.
Ahead of US visit, Modi said his visit to the United States would be an occasion to strengthen the Indo-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership and consolidate ties with Japan and Australia. He said in his address to the United Nations General Assembly he would focus on the pressing global challenges including the Covid-19 pandemic, the need to combat terrorism, climate change, and other important issues. At a media briefing ahead of the prime minister’s visit, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said the developments in Afghanistan would be extensively discussed in the bilateral talks between Modi and Biden and the Indian side would convey that Washington needed to continue focus on that country.

Prime Minister’s Engagements

23 September

• Modi met US Vice-President Kamala Harris.
• The prime minister met one-on-one with five chief executives of top American companies – Heads of Qualcomm, Adobe, First Solar, General Atomics and Blackstone.
• Modi had bilateral meetings with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

24 September
*Modi participated in the first in-person summit of the Quad in Washington and had an important bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden.

25 September
*Modi attended the UN General Assembly in New York and addressed the General Debate of the High-Level Segment of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
*Meeting With Joe Biden
The meeting with Joe Biden was the first in-person meeting between the two leaders after Biden became President in January.
*Biden and Modi discussed the current regional security situation following the recent developments in Afghanistan and a number of other issues. The need to “stem radicalism, extremism, cross-border terrorism and dismantling of global terrorist network”, also featured in the PM Modi-Biden talks.

Other issues on the agenda discussed with President Joe Biden were as follows:
• The Afghan crisis and its implications
• China’s growing assertiveness
• Ways to stem radicalism and cross-border terrorism
• Expansion of the India-US global partnership
• How to bolster bilateral trade and investment ties
• Strengthen defence and security collaboration
• Boost the Strategic Clean Energy Partnership
• Explore new avenues and emerging technologies, including R&D, innovation and industry linkages

Quad Summit

PM Modi also attended the first in-person Quad summit hosted by the US President. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also attended the summit. This was Modi’s first in-person meeting with Mr Suga after the latter took over the reins from Shinzo Abe in September last year.
The Quad summit aims to boost cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region amid China’s growing dominance in the area. The Quad countries – Australia, India, Japan and the US – announced a new working group on space, a supply chain initiative and a 5G deployment and diversification effort apart from discussing issues like challenges in the Indo Pacific, climate change and COVID-19 pandemic.

For the US, the Quad meeting marked another step to reviving an American focus on diplomatic efforts, following its dramatic exit from the 20-year Afghanistan war.
Of the three regional groupings that Washington leads in its strategic chess game to manage China’s ascent, the Quad is deliberately the most open. The other two are the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance, comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, and the newest arrival on the block – AUKUS.

Meeting with Kamala Harris

During his first meeting with US Vice President Kamala Harris, Modi latter brought up Pakistan’s role in terrorism and asked Islamabad to take action so it does not impact America and India’s security.
Modi and Harris had earlier spoken on the telephone in June this year. Harris had offered to prioritise India, in making US vaccines available in the wake of the Covid situation at that time in India.

Address to UN General Assembly

PM Modi will conclude the US visit with an address at the United Nations General Assembly, focusing on global challenges including the pandemic, the need to combat terrorism, climate change and other important issues.

India – US Issues

India and the US are close partners and share an economic and military relationship. Bilateral trade was $88.75 billion (Rs 6.5 lakh crore) in 2019-20, and the stated goal is of taking it to $500 billion (Rs 36.9 lakh crore) over the current decade. A new trade deal between the two countries is off the table but there are other areas of mutual convergence.

1. Defence. Since being designated a ‘major defence partner’ by the US in 2016, India has been able to access cutting-edge US military technology. Both countries conduct more military exercises with each other than with any other country. Over the past 15 years, India has bought arms worth $22 billion (Rs 1.6 lakh crore) from the US and is negotiating a fresh batch of defence deals worth approximately $10 billion (Rs 73,825 crore). The new deals include those for 30 MQ-9B Predator drones, worth approximately $3 billion (Rs 22,147 crore), additional C-130J transport aircraft and NASAMS-II air defence missile systems. India wants this relationship to move into the realm of joint development and to include more cutting-edge prowess in the field of stealth technologies, jet fighter engines and nuclear propulsion reactor technology.
3. Terrorism and Afghanistan. Since the swift takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and the shocking collapse of the earlier Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and its US-trained and equipped military, both India and the US have common concerns about Afghanistan becoming a hub of terrorism, with terrorists operating out of safe havens there to target the world outside, as it was during the previous Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001. A shared concern is intelligence cooperation after the US pullout to warn of possible terror threats. The immediate issue at hand is the push by the Taliban to gain global legitimacy, including claiming its seat at the United Nations. The US aims to exert leverage on the Islamist group using what Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month was a “range of tools”.
4. Climate Change. The two countries this year launched a new high-level team-up—the ‘US-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership’. The partnership envisages bilateral cooperation to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this long-term goal, countries aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate-neutral world by mid-century.
6. The US has set an economy-wide target of reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52 per cent below 2005 levels in 2030. As part of its climate mitigation efforts, India has set a target of installing 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030. The two countries are to collaborate on this 2030 agenda for clean technologies and climate action. The first announcement in this direction was made in New Delhi when Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry travelled to launch the initiative in April 2021.
7. Free and open Indo-Pacific. China’s rise as a military power has sparked global anxiety and uncertainty, particularly with regard to the South China Sea that Beijing has militarised and claims as its territorial waters. Over $5 trillion (Rs 7.3 lakh crore) worth of trade, which is over 60 per cent of the global maritime trade, passes through the South China Sea. An immediate response to China’s belligerence has been the revival of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, in March this year. The Quad countries—US, India, Australia and Japan—are to hold their first in-person meeting at the White House this week after a virtual summit last year. India and the US have reiterate their commitment to a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’—a region comprising the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean and including the South China Sea.
9. Vaccine Exports. In April, India halted vaccine exports after it was hit by a crippling second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic but resumed them from October. Indian manufacturers source raw materials, such as sterile filters and disposable bags for cell culture, used in vaccine production from the US. At a global Covid-19 summit on September 22, PM Modi emphasised that India would be stepping up vaccine production. He said India wants the vaccine raw material supply chains to be kept open so that it could step up vaccine production and resume exports to other countries. Global vaccine supply, particularly to the poorer countries, remains a huge bottleneck. The World Health Organization (WHO) has flagged vaccine inequity wherein a majority of the over 5 billion vaccines have been administered by the rich nations and the poorer countries were left to fend for themselves. President Biden has committed to donating 1.1 billion vaccine doses to the poorer countries, especially those in Africa. This is another area of collaboration between the two countries.

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Earlier, on 19 February, the Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by the prime minister, cleared the purchase of 24 Sikorsky MH-60R naval multirole helicopters through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme, worth about $2.12 billion. The MoD had approved funds for the purchase in August 2018. The FMS programme is meant for US allies to acquire defence articles, services, and training through government-to-government agreements. India will pay an initial 15% instalment for the MH-60R helicopters.

The cost of weapons was not included in the original programme, but the deal approved now for 24 MH-60Rs does include a weapons package. The helicopters are to be armed with multi-mode radar, Hellfire missiles, Mark 54 torpedoes and precision-kill rockets.

A formal government-to-government contract for the MH-60R helicopters will be signed once cost negotiations are finalized. No timeline has been set, but delivery will take place two years after the contract is inked. All 24 will come in four to five years

The 2009 tender for 16 helos was sent to Sikorsky, NH Industries, Airbus Helicopters and Russian Helicopters. The S-70B was selected over NH Industries’ NH90 helicopter in 2011; the other potential contenders did not participate.

MH-60 Romeo helicopters

The MH-60Rs, which are armed with Hellfire missiles, MK-54 torpedoes and precision-kill rockets, are considered a “critical operational necessity” for the Navy because its warships are virtually bereft of such helicopters at a time when Chinese nuclear and diesel-electric submarines are making regular forays into the Indian Ocean Region. The 140-warship force has just about a dozen old Sea King and 10 Kamov-28 anti-submarine warfare helicopters operational as of now.

India has been in need of formidable anti-submarine hunter helicopters for more than a decade now. A previous attempt to buy naval multirole helos failed when the MoD cancelled the planned purchase of 16 S-70B Seahawks from Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, in June 2017 following expiry of the $1 billion price tag offer.

The Navy plans to use the helicopters for its front-line warships to replace its outdated British Sea King Mark 42 helicopters. They are also to be used in limited intelligence gathering roles, for surveillance missions, and in search and rescue efforts. The procurement of the helicopters is the top-most priority for the service. The helicopters are also expected to have the capability for conducting amphibious assault and anti-submarine warfare missions.

The MH-60R is also used by the US Navy. It will have full anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability, as well ability to engage in warfare with ships at sea. An ASW-capable helicopter which carries sea-dunking with its sea-dunking sonars are a favoured platform for detecting a submarine. Submarines of the People Liberation Army Navy of China have been spotted in the Indian Ocean often.

Integrated Air Defense Weapon System

The United States, on 10 February, announced clearing the sale of an Integrated Air Defense Weapon System (IADWS) to India at an estimated cost of $1.87 billion to boost defence ties between the two countries.

The government-to-government sale cleared by the US State Department was announced by a US defence department agency after a notification was issued to the US Congress.

The IADWS, which was sought by India, comprised five AN/MPQ-64Fl Sentinel radar systems; 118 AMRAAMs (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) AIM-120C-7/C-8 missiles; three AMRAAM Guidance Sections; four AMRAAM Control Sections; and 134 Stinger FIM-92L missiles.

Also included are a host of related equipment and services, such as US government and contractor technical support; engineering and logistics support services; warranty services; Systems and Integration Checkout (SICO); field office support; and other related elements of logistics and programme support.

A US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) statement said that the proposed system will, on delivery, will be “further enhancing greater interoperability between India, the US, and other allies”.

The system, with Raytheon Corporation and Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace as principal contractors, will not “alter the basic military balance in the region”.

Comments

India has stepped up defence purchases from the US in recent years as part of a growing defence relationship that includes greater interoperability and joint exercises. From nil in 2008, India-US defence trade has gone up to $17 billion, facilitated by the signing of key foundational agreements to enhance interoperability and changes in the US export regime.

The earlier “direct commercial sale” of the six Apaches, in turn, is basically a follow-on order to the 22 such helicopters already inducted by IAF under a Rs 13,952 crore deal inked with the US in September 2015. The Army should get the deliveries of the six choppers, armed with Stinger air-to-air missiles, Hellfire Longbow air-to-ground missiles, guns and rockets, around 2022-2023.

Others deals in the pipeline include six more P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft ($1.8 billion), the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System-II for the missile shield over Delhi ($1.8 billion), 30 Sea Guardian armed drones (over $2.5 billion) and 13 big MK-45 naval gun systems for warships ($1.02 billion).

India and the US have also identified seven defence projects for co-development and production under the bilateral Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). These include air-launched small aerial systems (drone swarms), light-weight small arms technology, ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, targeting and reconnaissance) systems and anti-drone technology called counter-UAS rocket, artillery and mortar systems.

The flurry of defence deals will help assuage continuing US concerns over India first inking the $5.43 billion contract for S-400 Triumf missile systems with Russia in October 2018, and then following it with another $3 billion deal for lease of a Akula-1 nuclear-powered attack submarine in March 2019.

Indian has clearly told the US that it has a separate and long-standing strategic partnership with Russia that will continue as before. India has never compromised the operational secrecy of weapons it has bought from any country, nor does it pass sensitive military information to a third party.

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