India-US Ties: Depth & Nuance

26-08-2023

11:41 AM

1 min read

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on recent visit to Washington remarked that the US decision to provide Pakistan with a $450 million sustenance package for Pakistan’s aging F-16 fleet was “not fooling anybody”.
He also questioned the merits of the US-Pakistan partnership, saying it had “not served” either country.

Background of F-16 deal

Initiation: The US first gave Pakistan F-16s in 1980s as a reward for its assistance in the Afghan war.
- The US supplied weapons and money to Pakistan to unleash armies of jihadis against the Soviet Army.
Closure: When the US objective was achieved with the Soviet Union’s departure from Afghanistan, the US too resized its relations with Pakistan.
- The Pressler Amendment, aimed against Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions, froze it out of military assistance.
- Pressler Amendment: It banned most economic and military assistance to Pakistan unless the president certified on an annual basis that Pakistan does not possess a nuclear explosive device.
Rejuvenating ties: A decade later, the Bush Administration not only approved the release of previously blocked F-16s, but also provided a refurbishment package, and sale of new F-16s.

About US’ F-16 package to Pakistan: As per Defense Security Co-operation Agency press release, the $450 million package includes technical and logistics services for follow-on support of Pakistan’s F-16 fleet.
- It involves participation in several technical coordination groups, aircraft and engine hardware and software modifications and support, equipment support, manuals, precision measurement, and a range of related elements of aircraft maintenance.
- This is the first American military assistance package to Pakistan after the Trump Administration ended defence and security co-operation with the country in 2018.
U.S. justification for deal: The proposed sale does not include any new capabilities, weapons, or munitions and will not alter the basic military balance in the region.
- The deal will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by allowing Pakistan to retain interoperability with US in ongoing counter-terrorism efforts and in preparation for future contingency
Moral obligation: As per United States Secretary of State Antony J Blinken, Washington holds “obligation” to provide military equipment to ensure that Pakistan’s F-16s are kept capable to deal with “clear terrorist threats” from al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

U.S. indication to India: Owing to U.S. concerns on India’s “lukewarm” attitude to the sanctions against Russia, its “neutrality” in the war and strategy of “issue-based alignment”, the F-16 gesture to Pakistan could have been intended to convey that disapproval in concrete terms.
U.S. signal to China: In the geopolitical churn arising from the Russia-Ukraine war, the US is trying to break China’s hold on Pakistan with sweeteners of its own.
- The Pakistan Air Force now has more Chinese JF-17 Thunder fighter jets than F-16s, but it continues to rely on the ageing American aircraft, as seen in India-Pakistan 2019 skirmish.

Daunting India: As per the online portal Security Risks Asia, the sustainment programme for Pakistan’s F-16 fleet would enhance conventional deterrence versus India.
Demonstration: The last aerial skirmish between Pakistan and India in 2019 during which the PAF brought down a MiG-21 flown by IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman showed that the F-16 is the aircraft that Pakistan will use in any future encounter with India.
Pakistan defying U.S. deal: The U.S State Department expressed concerns to the Pakistan Air force chief in 2019 that the F16s had been moved to “unauthorised” forward operating bases in defiance of an agreement with the US.
- As per its agreement with the US, Pakistan must station the F-16s at the Jacobabad air base in Sindh, and the Americans were upset at evidence that they had been shifted from there.
- The letter, quoted by a US media organisation, said that such actions by Pakistan risked allowing these weapons to fall in the hands of “malign actors”.

Surfaced hostilities: Following India’s 1998 nuclear tests, the western world came down heavily on India, but then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee justified the tests writing to then President Bill Clinton owing to overtly aggressive neighboring China, a state which committed armed aggression against India in 1962.
Rapprochement: While the nuclear tests were a temporary setback, “by the turn of the century, India’s relations with the US and the West in general had begun to crystallize into a mutually beneficial and substantive relationship.
Renewed contract: The Indo-US nuclear deal of the George W Bush years elevated Indo-US ties to a higher strategic trajectory.
Sustained relations: Post Mumbai attack by Pakistani terrorists, the ties between New Delhi and Washington stayed the course.
- Barack Obama became the only President to make two visits to India, and he hosted both Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi in the White House.
New heights : Despite Donald Trump’s unpredictability, Indo-U.S. ties continued to improve, as seen in the revival of Quad framework, strengthening of defence partnership with the signing of the foundational agreements and Trump’s visit to India in 2020.
- Under President Joe Biden, the rhythm has been maintained, especially on the Indo-Pacific strategy to contain aggressive China.

Common enemy: Even as India-U.S. navigate the minor turbulence in their relationship due to the Ukraine war, both see China as the biggest threat and rival.
Awareness: US administration had ignored the warning signs of a rapidly rising and increasingly aggressive Beijing until around 2011, when Obama started to talk about a “pivot” to the East.
- The pivot was meant to be a strategic “re-balancing” of U.S. interests from Europe and the Middle East toward East Asia.
But the Trump administration clearly spelled out China as a strategic threat and rival. This framing has continued under Biden.

India is demonstrating “strategic autonomy” to engage with every side, for instance recent Quad meet, outreach to Russia and China at the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) in Samarkand, work around Western sanctions to buy oil from Russia etc.
- India has thus kept friends in all camps, and may have to come to terms that others in world play the same game.

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