An alliance directed against the interests of the peoples
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his fourth visit to the US since assuming office two years ago with a very significant visit to the Arlington Military Cemetery, where military men killed in US wars of aggression such as in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq are also buried.
In his address to the US Congress, Prime Minister Modi talked of shared ideas and goals and how, by inviting him to address Congress, the US had “honoured the worlds’ largest democracy”. But he also stressed the importance of the U.S.-India strategic partnership. “India exercises (militarily) more with the United States than we do with any other partner,” Modi noted that the sale of U.S. military goods to India has increased “from almost zero to $10 billion in less than a decade.” Those sales have included mostly very expensive items such as Chinook and Apache helicopters and P-8 reconnaissance planes.
But US diplomatic history shows it does not build partnerships to “honour” other countries – but to use their resources, and their peoples, as fuel to further its insatiable imperialist ambitions. We, the working peoples of India, must not forget that history.
Events since PM Modi’s return have also further revealed the exact ambitions for which the US seeks to use India.
The US prodded other members of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) to support India’s entry into nuclear export control club, though the group’s meeting later in June 2016 did not approve India’s membership due to opposition from China and some other members. Already, this clash over the NSG membership is being used by the Indian State to portray the US as India’s best friend and China its worst enemy.
Three weeks after PM Modi returned, India formally gained entry into the 34-nation Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), where too, its bid was backed by the US. Joining the group, which does not include China as a member, paves the way for the purchase of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV), like the Predator from the United States. In addition, membership would facilitate the export of the Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missile to Vietnam in a bid to check China, and also enable India to obtain technologies from overseas to complete development of its homemade UCAV.
Further, on 25th June 2016, the Defence Acquisition Council chaired by defence minister Manohar Parrikar approved the purchase of 145 Ultra-Light Howitzers, worth about USD 750 million, from the US, the first acquisition of such weapon systems by the Army in three decades since the Bofors scandal.
The ruling elites of India and the US have been pulling closer to each other for a few years now. The US government clearly sees India not only as a very big market but also in strategic terms part of its Pivot to Asia policy, through which it is trying to encircle China militarily. Several joint military exercises have been held on land, sea and air by the armed forces of India and the US in the past few years as Modi himself pointed out in his address to the US Congress. The latest such exercise which also included Japan was held off the coast of China just a few weeks after Modi’s visit to the US.
As Modi pointed out, the US has now become a very significant supplier of weapons and armament technology to India. The US continues to be the most aggressive and warmongering imperialist power on earth and the greatest threat to the freedom and independence of the peoples. The Indian ruling class is systematically strengthening its military strategic alliance with the US in pursuit of its own imperialist ambitions. It is arming itself with the most sophisticated weapons of mass destruction, with US support.
The Indian ruling class looks at our soldiers as cannon fodder to establish its domination over other countries through military aggression and blackmail. The agreement finalised between the two governments during Modi’s visit to the US, which permits the US to use Air, Sea and land bases of the Indian Armed Forces, has opened up the real possibility of US forces being stationed in India. These forces can be deployed from bases in India in its wars in other countries. This is extremely dangerous, as it will mean that India will become an active participant in the wars of aggression carried out by the US against other countries in Asia. There is also great danger that the US will use its growing military and intelligence collaboration with the Indian Armed Forces and intelligence agencies to destablilise India.
The pitfalls of a strategic bear hug with the US are known well to those countries and leaders America has embraced, used and discarded – including in our very neighbourhood. Pakistan has expressed serious concern over growing strategic ties between India and the US following PM Modi’s visit. Addressing a conference at the Foreign Office on 9th June 2016, Adviser to the Pakistan Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that “the US approaches Pakistan whenever it needs it and abandons when it does not need the country”. This is a very truthful statement from a neighbouring country which has had very close ties with the US for many decades.
The working class and people of India must learn from the experience of these countries and peoples and thoroughly oppose the growing ties between the government of India and that of the United States of America as these are against the interest of peace-loving peoples in South Asia and in all the regions around.