Roving Periscope: Will India become a member of NATO-Plus?
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), founded in Washington in 1949 primarily to resist the then Soviet Union’s potential threat to the America-led Western Europe, may now have a new member: India.
Interestingly, India and Russia have been close friends since 1971! Who the West thinks is threatening India, which needs NATO protection?
China!
Is NATO expanding its net to include China as a source of threat to the West, and presumably India as a counter to it?
Despite being nuclear-armed, a dysfunctional Europe dreads Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine has revealed the chinks in the armor of the 27-member European Union. The EU refrained from taking decisive steps except providing financial and military aid to Ukraine to prolong the war. The reason is simple: Europe depends on Russia for over 40 percent of its energy needs, which has already weaponized petrol and gas.
America is now cautious of a weakened Europe amid new threats from the old enemy, Russia, and a new one, China. It is looking for new partners in NATO Plus, even if they have little to do with the Atlantic Ocean! It has five members in NATO Plus: Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and South Africa.
America seems to look at India as another Turkey! Despite being a NATO member, Turkey is close to Russia. Likewise, India could also become a NATO Plus member in the changing geopolitics, which follows the notion of a ‘balance of enemies.’
That is why Indian-American US Congressman Rohit (Ro) Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California, is working on adding India as the sixth country to NATO Plus.
The move came after the US House of Representatives on July 14 approved Khanna’s amendment with an overwhelming majority to the National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) that proposes the deepening of India-US defense ties.
NATO allies get quick approval on defense agreements. Adding India as the sixth country to NATO-Plus would move New Delhi towards a defense security alignment with the United States, said Khanna, who introduced the bill two years ago.
About the waiver to NATO Plus countries in defense purchases being in the US’s own interest, Khanna said it was the most significant vote to strengthen the US-India relationship since the civilian nuclear deal passed in 2008 with an overwhelmingly 300 bipartisan vote.
“We need a strong partnership with India. Defense partnership, a strategic partnership, especially because we are two democratic nations and with the rise of China and Putin, this alliance is critical for the United States,” Khanna said.
The India-US nuclear cooperation agreement was signed in 2008 under the UPA government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh, which gave a fillip to the ties between the two nations. A significant aspect of the India-US nuclear deal was the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) issued a special waiver to India that enabled it to sign cooperation agreements with a dozen countries.
The deal enabled India to separate its civilian and military programs and placed its civilian nuclear facilities under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Khanna said the waiver to India from Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) regime, which penalizes countries engaging in significant defense transactions with Russia, is in the best national interest of the US and the US-India defense partnership.
“Remember, it goes beyond waiving sanctions. It talks about strengthening our defense partnership with India. The challenge is that right now, Russian weapons are cheaper. But Russian weapons are also inferior; as we see in the war in Ukraine, the SU 57 simply can’t compete with the F 22, the F 35, or the US military equipment.
