US Senate okays non-Nato ally status for India

WASHINGTON: Notwithstanding differences on trade and commerce with India, US lawmakers and the Trump administration are on course to “upgrade” New Delhi to a status on par with Nato allies, with the Senate last week passing a legislative provision to this effect.
Part of the National defence Authorisation Act for the fiscal year 2020, the Amendment appended by Senate India Caucus Co-Chairs Senator John Cornyn and Senator Mark Warner to the NDAA provides for, among other things, increased US-India defence cooperation in the Indian Ocean in the areas of maritime security, counter-terrorism, counter-piracy and humanitarian assistance.
The amendment would also require the secretary of Defence to submit, within 180 days of its enactment, a report to Congress on US-India defence cooperation and to conduct regular joint military activities with India in the Western Indian Ocean.
“The report will include a description of military activities, military cooperation activities, how relevant geographic combatant commands coordinate their activities with the Indian military in the Western Indian Ocean. It also authorizes the Secretary of defence to enter into military cooperation agreements and to conduct regular joint military training and operations with India in the Western Indian Ocean,” legislative aides to Senator Cornyn said.
The US House of Representatives will be processing a similar amendment introduced by lawmakers Joe Wilson, Brad Sherman, Ami Bera, Raja Krishnamoorthi and others, and once the House passes it, the two chambers will send a reconciled version to the President for his signature, upon which it becomes law.
The “upgrade” will also smoothen the passage of sales to India of high–end US military hardware with New Delhi signing foundational compatibility, logistical, and security and secrecy agreements required by Washington for such transactions.
The US has already given India Strategic Trade Authorization-1(STA Tier-1) status, a move that facilitates the exchange of high technology and strengthens defence collaboration, and also designated India as a designated India as a “Major defence Partner.”
Several lobbying groups, both on the US and Indian side, have been working for months to get this “upgrade” for India believing it will enhance US-India strategic ties, although skeptics who consider Washington as a fickle ally see it as a ploy to build New Delhi as a counterweight to China and sell more American military hardware to a country that has hitherto been a major buyer of Russian arms.
The US is also trying to whittle down India's dependance on Russian military supplies.
“India is an increasingly important bulwark against Sharia-supremacism and the jihadism….and against an expansionist and ever-more-aggressive Communist China. India shares the US and Japanese commitment to freedom of navigation on the high seas and has a mutual interest in security in the Indo-Pacific region,” the think tank Center for Security Policy said in a brief last year when the process of elevating India to a non-Nato ally status began.
In fact, India is on a longer legislative route to a major non-Nato ally status. The US President is empowered to designate a country as an MNNA under Title 22 US Code § 2321k, which President Trump employed in making Brazil a MNNA last month following the visit to Washington of the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
While the major non-Nato ally status or its equivalent, does not automatically enjoin a mutual defence pact with the United States (as it does with Nato allies) it still confers a variety of military and financial advantages that otherwise are not obtainable by non-NATO countries, depending on the version of the amendment that is eventually signed by the President.