A strong US-India defense partnership based on shared democratic values is essential to advancing US interests in the Indo-Pacific, three US senators said in a legislative amendment urging the Biden administration to encourage New Delhi to speed up the transition away from Russian weapons. Senator Mark Warner, co-chairman of the Senate India Caucus, along with Senators Jack Reed and Jim Inhofe said in the National Defense Authorization Act amendment that India faces imminent and serious threats on its regional borders from China with China’s continued military aggression. Chinese along the Indo-China border.
“The United States should take further steps to support India to accelerate its transition away from weapons and defense systems produced in the Russian Federation while strongly supporting India’s immediate defense needs,” the addendum said. It said India relies on Russian-made weapons for its national defence. Russia was a major supplier of military equipment to India. In October 2018, India signed a $5 billion deal with Russia to buy five units of S-400 air defense missile systems, despite US warnings that continuing with the deal may require sanctions under the provisions of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA ).
Russia began delivery of the first regiment of missile systems in December last year and was deployed to cover part of the border with China in the northern sector as well as the border with Pakistan. “A strong defense partnership between the United States and India, rooted in shared democratic values, is essential to the advancement of United States interests in the Indo-Pacific region,” the addendum said.
She said such partnership between the world’s oldest and largest democracies is critical and should continue to be strengthened in response to growing threats in the Indo-Pacific region to send a clear signal that sovereignty and international law must be respected. China, which has territorial disputes with many countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, opposes proactive US policies, specifically in the disputed South China Sea.
China claims almost all of the disputed South China Sea, although Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. Beijing is also involved in a maritime dispute with Japan over the East China Sea.
The amendment welcomes the US-India Critical and Emerging Technologies Initiative, saying it is a critical step to develop closer partnerships between governments, academia and industry in both countries to address the latest advances in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, aerospace industry and semiconductor manufacturing.
“Collaboration between engineers and computer scientists through the United States-India Critical and Emerging Technologies Initiative is vital to help ensure that the United States, India and other democracies around the world foster innovation and facilitate technological progress that continues to far outpace technology. Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China,” he said.
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