Today on my mind, is nothing but the "India-US Defense ties"

As US secretary of defence Ashton Carter came to India this week for the 3rd time in his tenure, US-India defence ties have taken another small step towards consolidation. We both finally managed to agree “in principle” on a logistics agreement which is expected to help  both militaries coordinate better. A second pact to improve the sharing of information on commercial shipping, in a move to beef up security on the seas, is also close to realization.

Many in India worry that the US wants to make India a junior partner in its regional alliance network, but Carter has given clear indications that he understands Indian concerns. He has been explicit that India was not likely to be an exclusive partner of the US as he suggested “Indians are, like many others, also proud. So they want to do things independently, and they want to do things their own way. They don’t want to do things just with us. They want to do things with all; that’s fine. So we’re not looking for anything exclusive. But we are looking for as close a relationship and a stronger relationship as we can because it’s geopolitically grounded.”

To counter the China challenge, the US wants to create a “network” of countries with “shared values, habits of cooperation, and compatible and complementary capabilities. We(India) need not become part of this network but it needs to articulate the need for a new security architecture in Asia that can successfully take on the challenge posed by a rising and aggressive China.

We are in the big league today and so should start thinking big. The old Third World rhetoric doesn’t do justice to Indian global aspirations. The Narendra Modi government is gradually shedding Indian strategic diffidence but it needs to move faster if India is to avail of the opportunities that present themselves today.