2 September 2016

Foundational pact

Foundational pact
India-US military logistics agreement was long in the making. Its final version affirms critical importance of public debate.
It has been 12 years in the making, but it has finally seen the light of day. The military logistics agreement, called the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), was signed between India and the US on Monday in Washington, in the presence of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter. The agreement, the defence ministry has explained, “establishes basic terms, conditions, and procedures for reciprocal provision of Logistic Support, Supplies, and Services between the armed forces of India and the United States”. But that is not the full story. This mutual support is neither automatic nor all-encompassing. It can be used by either side exclusively during authorised port visits, joint exercises, joint training, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts.
Logistics support for any other cooperative effort will only be provided on a case by-case basis with prior mutual consent of the two countries.
It is because of these changes that the pact is called LEMOA. The usual military logistics agreement signed by the US with other countries is called the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA). It has a standard draft text, which the Americans expected the Indians to sign on. In the UPA regime, India wasn’t keen to sign the pact. But even when the BJP government came to power in Delhi, the defence ministry negotiated hard over its text. The modified LSA text is called the LEMOA. That concerns of being seen as too close a US military ally are still at the top of the mind of the government, is reflected in the statement on the signing of the LEMOA issued by the defence ministry which asserts that “the Agreement does not create any obligations on either Party to carry out any joint activity. It does not provide for the establishment of any bases or basing arrangements.” It is easy to be critical of Delhi for the long time taken in signing on the dotted line, but the final text which takes care of India’s concerns is testimony to a vibrant polity and its ability to safeguard the country’s interests.When discussions to sign the logistics pact started in 2004, it was one of the four “foundational pacts” the US wanted India to sign. The others are the End User Verification Agreement — which the two countries have already signed — a Communications Interoperability & Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) and the Basic Exchange & Cooperation Agreement on geo-spatial services (BECA). At the press conference in Washington, Parrikar refused to commit on the two pending pacts. He reminded American journalists that inking of the LEMOA itself has taken 12 years, and he would first put out its details in the public domain for discussion. CISMOA and BECA are even more complex agreements, and it would be prudent to have a public debate before they are signed. That is one lesson from LEMOA that must not be lost sight of.

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