The U.S. State Secretary added that Washington and New Delhi stand shoulder to shoulder against terrorism.
The proposals forward by the USA include sale of Guardian UAVs, aircraft carrier technologies, the future vertical-lift programme, and F-18 and F-16 fighter aircraft.
“US and India stand shoulder to shoulder against terrorism”.
Speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washinton, Tillerson said India and USA defence ties are growing.
Tillerson said the USA wants to improve India’s military capabilities, it has offered to sell it unarmed Guardian surveillance drones, aircraft carrier technologies and F-18 and F-16 fighter aircraft, he said.
This was Tillerson’s first India policy speech after becoming the top American diplomat early this year. He said they were “cross-screening” known and suspected terrorists, and later this year will convene a new dialogue on terrorist designations. “This is a natural complement to India’s “Act East” policy”. The United States and India – with our shared goals of peace, security, freedom of navigation, and a free and open architecture – must serve as the eastern and western beacons of the Indo-Pacific. Tillerson said in a remarkably candid address to the Washington think-tank, adding, “In this period of uncertainty and angst, India needs a reliable partner on the world stage”. “We are already capturing the benefits of our important trilateral engagement between the US, India, and Japan. The strength of the Indo- Pacific has always been the interaction among many peoples, governments, economies, and cultures”, he said.
Speaking about peace and stability in South Asia and especially in Afghanistan, Tillerson said that apart from India, Pakistan too was an important partner of the United States in this.
“The fact that the Indian Navy was the first overseas user of the P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft, which it effectively fields with US Navy counterparts, speaks volumes of our shared maritime interests and need to enhance interoperability”, Tillerson said. By zeroing in on how China hopes to expand its influence – through debt burdens that essentially put developing countries and some of their biggest assets in hock to Beijing – Tillerson was echoing concerns that India has raised about China’s geoeconomic expansion in its backyard, especially in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. “As the port and starboard lights between which the region can reach its greatest and best potential”, Tillerson said. He stressed growing defense cooperation between the two countries, and especially the annual three-way military exercises including Japan that are at the center of US efforts to push back against China in the greater Indian Ocean area.
Tillerson said the US seeks constructive relations with China but “won’t shrink” from the challenges it poses when it “subverts the sovereignty of neighboring countries, and disadvantages the USA and our friends”.
