| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| India, US likely to ink military logistics support agreement |
| 2007-07-14 |
| NEW DELHI: India and the US are close to signing an agreement under which their armed forces will provide each other logistics support on a reciprocal basis even as New Delhi may bid to buy another American amphibious warship. A logistics support agreement is in the final stages, said top Pentagon officials now on a visit to the country. They also said that Washington had offered the giant landing ship, USS Nashwill, to the Indian Navy. "We have put the offer to the Indian Navy," Lt Gen Jeffrey B Kohler, director of the Defence Security Cooperation Agency in the US defence department told reporters. The amphibious warship is of the same class as the 17,000-tonne USS Trenton that was bought by the Indian Navy. Referring to the logistics support agreement, Kohler said the accord had been put up to the Cabinet Committee on Security. The Americans usually describe such a pact as an "acquisition and cross-services" agreement. It was listed as a logistics support agreement at the suggestion of India, he said. "The agreement will ease joint operations by the armed forces of the two countries during exercises and in coming to the aid of people struck by natural calamities," Kohler said, making it clear that the accord did not in any way imply the stockpiling of weapons on each other's soil. "The armed forces of the two countries are having frequent interactions and face immense difficulties by way of fuel supplies and other logistics. With such an agreement in place, it would ease things for both militaries," he said. |
| Posted by:John Frum |