Friendship thrives between the World’s two largest democracies, US and India. But so do arms sales

World’s Two Largest Democracies Share Interest in Free Indo-Pacific Region

DEC. 18, 2019 | BY C. TODD LOPEZ , Jim Garamone DOD, SIPRI

The United States and India, the world’s two largest democracies, share mutual interests in many areas, including defense, the U.S. defense secretary said.

“Our defense relationship is strong, and since the establishment of the 2+2 ministerial last year, it continues to improve,” Dr. Mark T. Esper said during a news conference today after the second U.S.-India 2+2 ministerial conference at the State Department in Washington. “Our discussions during this year’s ministerial reinforce the strategic interests shared by our two countries and helped us build upon the gains from last year. As democracies, the U.S. and India have an abiding interest in advancing a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.”

Esper spent much of the day meeting with officials from India, including Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. The three met at the Pentagon in the morning and later moved to the State Department for meetings with Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo.

The defense secretary said the United States and India are taking steps to strengthen their maritime partnership and to expand military-to-military cooperation, including the two nations’ ground forces, air forces and special operators.

Esper noted that the two nations launched a new annual exercise called Tiger Triumph. Its first iteration was the first time the U.S. military participated in a military exercise with all three of India’s military services.

The exercise will enhance tri-service coordination and allow the exchange of knowledge and expertise, the secretary said. “Our forces successfully completed the first exercise under this initiative last month,” he added, “and we look forward to the next one in 2020.”

Also of importance, Esper said, is continued growth between the United States and India on defense trade and technology. He said the two nations finalized three agreements under the U.S.-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative, or DTTI, which he said will enhance the ability of both nations to coproduce and codevelop critical military technologies.

Esper said defense trade between the two nations now stands at about $18 billion annually. But the secretary said that trade is not just about the selling of equipment.

“It gets to the improved interoperability between our two countries, our two militaries,” he said, as well as a better understanding and a way to work and fight better together if called upon to do so. Deepening and broadening that effort was key to today’s discussions, the secretary said.

Esper acknowledged that much work remains to continue building the U.S.-India defense relationship, but he expressed confidence that the defense relationship will grow stronger “as we work together to defend the international rules-based order and advance our vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

A decade ago, U.S. arms sales to India amounted to virtually nothing. By 2018, the United States is the second-largest arms supplier to India, and U.S. officials say they hope to increase that business, Jim Garamone Reported last year.

India had already purchased U.S. C-17 Globemaster III aircraft and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. One aspect of the current U.S.-Indian talks is the communications compatibility and security agreement. Once signed, a much larger range of U.S. weapons systems would be available to India.

Over the years, first the Soviet Union and then Russia were the largest arms suppliers to India. Russia remains the biggest supplier, mainly because of contracts for legacy systems.

The five largest exporters in 2014–18 were the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China. Together, they accounted for 75 per cent of the total volume of arms exports in 2014–18. The flow of arms increased to the Middle East between 2009–13 and 2014–18, while there was a decrease in flows to all other regions, Sipri reported.

US arms exports grew by 29 per cent between 2009–13 and 2014–18, and the US share of total global exports rose from 30 per cent to 36 per cent. The gap between the top two arms-exporting states also increased: US exports of major arms were 75 per cent higher than Russia’s in 2014–18, while they were only 12 per cent higher in 2009–13. More than half (52 per cent) of US arms exports went to the Middle East in 2014–18.

India has ordered a large number of major arms from foreign suppliers; however, deliveries are severely delayed in many cases,’ says Siemon T. Wezeman, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme. ‘In contrast, Chinese arms imports decreased because China has been more successful in designing and producing its own modern weaponry.’

India was the world’s second largest importer of major arms in 2014–18 and accounted for 9.5 per cent of the global total. Its imports decreased by 24 per cent between 2009–13 and 2014–18, partly due to delays in deliveries of arms produced under licence from foreign suppliers, such as combat aircraft ordered from Russia in 2001 and submarines ordered from France in 2008. Russia accounted for 58 per cent of Indian arms imports in 2014–18, com- pared with 76 per cent in 2009–13. Israel, the USA and France all increased their arms exports to India in 2014–18.

Arms imports by states in the Middle East increased by 87 per cent between 2009–13 and 2014–18 and accounted for 35 per cent of global arms imports in 2014–18. Saudi Arabia became the world’s largest arms importer in 2014–18, with an increase of 192 per cent compared with 2009–13. Arms imports by Egypt, the third largest arms importer in 2014–18, tripled (206 per cent) between 2009–13 and 2014–18. Arms imports by Israel (354 per cent), Qatar (225 per cent) and Iraq (139 per cent) also rose between 2009–13 and 2014–18. However, Syria’s arms imports fell by 87 per cent.

‘Weapons from the USA, the United Kingdom and France are in high demand in the Gulf region, where conflicts and tensions are rife,’ says Pieter D. Wezeman, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme. ‘Russia, France and Germany dramatically increased their arms sales to Egypt in the past five years.’