NEW DELHI, April 22: A classified report commissioned by the US Department of Defence was quoted on Monday by an Indian website as saying that the US military wants access to Indian bases and defence infrastructure.
Rediff.com, quoting from the report which it said was exclusively made available to it, said the US air force specifically desires the establishment of air bases in India.
The report on the future of India-US military relations, being distributed among decision-makers in the United States and made available to a handful of senior members of the Indian government, also speaks of the USAF’s desire for “having access closer to areas of instability.”
“American military officers are candid in their plans to eventually seek access to Indian bases and military infrastructure. India’s strategic location in the centre of Asia, astride the frequently travelled Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOC) linking the Middle East and East Asia, makes India particularly attractive to the US military,” the report says.
The report quoted US lieutenant generals as saying that the access to India bases would enable the US military “to be able to touch the rest of the world” and to “respond rapidly to regional crises”.
The report, prepared by Juli A. MacDonald, an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, for the Department of Defence, is based on interviews of 42 key Americans, including 23 active military officers, 15 government officials and four others.
In India MacDonald met 10 active Indian military officers and five government officials besides several members of the National Security Council, and outside experts advising the government, rediff.com said.
The report points out that many American military planners are thinking about “different sets of allies and friends for addressing a future strategic environment in Asia that may be dramatically different from today.”
“For many, India is the most attractive alternative. For this reasons, several Americans underscored that eventual access to Indian military infrastructure represents a critical “strategic hedge” against dramatic changes in traditional US relationships in Asia,” the report says.
A South Asia Foreign Area Officer of the US State Department has been quoted as saying that India’s strategic importance increases if existing US relationships and arrangements in Asia fails.
The officer cites three key possibilities for that: If US relations with other traditional allies (eg Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia) becomes more acrimonious or politically uncomfortable for both parties; or if access rights that the United States takes for granted become more restrictive; or if our traditional relationships collapse resulting in a US military withdrawal.
The Foreign Area Officer, who is specialises on South Asia and is among those few American diplomats who can converse in Hindi, says, “The United States needs to develop alternatives in Asia. India is the optimal choice if we can overcome the obstacles in building the relationship.”
During the 1991 Gulf War, India provided refuelling facilities to US warplanes.
It said as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, Indian naval ships escorted merchant vessels from the North Arabian Sea till the Straits of Malacca, in the most active cooperation with the US navy in history.
“In fact, it is in naval cooperation that America sees the immediate future of India-US military relations. It is not just access to bases and ports that the US military hopes to get in India, but also training facilities in India,” the report said.
India has a variety of landscapes, from ice-clad mountains to deserts, and it would help the Americans because of military training ranges shrinking and becoming increasingly controversial in the United States, the report says.
And for the US navy, training with the Indian navy is the best way to become “proficient in the Indian Ocean region”, the report adds.