As Trump vows to stop flow of jobs overseas, U.S. plans to make fighter jets in India
Three F-16 aircraft take part in a media preview in Singapore. The fighter plane, fllown by air forces around the world, may soon be manufactured only in India. (Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images)
By Annie Gowen
December 5 at 3:24 PM
NEW DELHI — As a new American president bent on retaining American jobs prepares to take office, the Obama administration and the U.S. defense industry are working on a deal with the Indian government to build iconic U.S. combat aircraft in India.
In recent months, Lockheed Martin and Boeing have made proposals to the Indian government to manufacture fighter jets — the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F/A-18 Super Hornet — in India as the country seeks to modernize its rapidly aging fleet of largely Russian-built airplanes.
In both cases, the aviation companies would be building production facilities in India; Lockheed Martin proposes to move its entire F-16 assembly line from Texas to India, making India the sole producer of the single-engine combat aircraft.
[US India] [ODI] [Fighter] [Trump] [Lockheed Martin] [Technology transfer] [Counterbalance]
Pakistan and India Unlikely to Move to All-out War: Musharraf
By David White |
LONDON, Dec 3 2016 (IPS) - High levels of both conventional and nuclear deterrence are likely to prevent the recent surge in clashes between India and Pakistan from escalating into all-out war, according to Pakistan’s former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf.
In an exclusive interview with IPS in London, Musharraf predicted that low-intensity conflict would continue in disputed border areas. But he did not share the belief of many Pakistanis that hostilities could slide into full-scale war between the two nuclear-armed countries.
“Any military commander knows the force levels being maintained by either side,” he said. “I don’t think war is a possibility because the lethality and accuracy of weapons has increased so much.”
Although Pakistan has reserved the right to make a nuclear first strike, he said it had sufficient controls to ensure that its nuclear weapons, including new short-range tactical missiles, were not used accidentally or stolen by terrorist groups. “They are in good hands, in secure hands.” he said.
“Thank God, the level of conventional deterrence that we have in terms of weapons and manpower is enough to deter conventional war. So therefore I’m reasonably sure that in case of a war it is the conventional side which will be played and we will not go on to the unconventional.”
[India Pakistan] [Deterrence] [First strike]
The Myth of the McMahon Line
Update, November 8, 2016: I just finished consulting Alastair Lamb's The McMahon Line: A study in the Relations between India China and Tibet, 1904 to 1914 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966). Lamb's book is a leisurely 650-page stroll through records of the British Foreign Office, declassified in the mid-1960s, that provide the foundation for the narrative provided by revisionist historians, Neville Maxwell, and in the post below.
Lamb's book makes it clear that the Simla Convention was an unsuccessful gambit in a game of multi-dimensional chess played between Great Britain, British India, Tibet, China, Russia, and Mongolia, and involving interests in Afghanistan, Persia, Nepal, Sinkang and Burma. Although Great Britain and British India were the driving force behind Simla and most key developments are documented in the records of the Foreign Office (including telegram intercepts revealing the Chinese negotiating strategy), a heroic and multi-lingual scholar could probably put together a fascinating narrative by adding Tibetan, Chinese, and Russian sources to the mix.
[McMahon Line] [Border War]
India and Russia are enjoying a second honeymoon
By M.K. Bhadrakumar October 15, 2016 4:13 PM (UTC+8)
Over the past decade or so, the annual India-Russia summit meetings have tended to become boring events – like a jaded marriage drained of romance. However, this year’s, slated for the weekend on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Goa, promises to be exciting.
To continue with the metaphor, one of the partners has been seen as consorting with an unsavory character and the discovery of the dalliance has overnight electrified the wedlock. The partners are called upon to make an existential choice – rediscover their old mutual ardor comes to terms with the new reality.
This would just about sum up the dilemma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
No doubt, the recent Russian-Pakistani military exercise signifies a quickening of the ‘thaw’ in the relations between the two countries in recent years.
It was slow in coming and Indians shouldn’t have been taken by surprise – except that in their obsessive focus on their partnership with the United States, they had taken the eye off their ‘time-tested’ friend, Russia.
Ironically, it is also the pro-US lobbyists ensconced in Delhi’s think tanks, including some former diplomats, who appear most perturbed today that Russians have ‘cheated’ on India. This is not surprising. Russia has become a factor in India-US relations. This is one thing.
What gives impetus to Russia-Pakistan relations? Three main reasons can be identified.
First and foremost, Russia cannot afford to overlook the centrality of Pakistan in relation to the upcoming struggle against the Islamic State in Afghanistan and Central Asia, which also happens to have a geopolitical dimension, given the US’ strategy of ‘encirclement’ of Russia with hostile entities.
Simply put, Russia feels the compulsion – rightly or wrongly – to neutralize the US’ capacity to create security threats.
[India Russia]
India begins campaign at United Nations to isolate Pakistan
By Michelle Nichols | UNITED NATIONS
India began a campaign to isolate Pakistan at the United Nations on Monday, telling the 193-member General Assembly it was time to identify nations who nurture, peddle and export terrorism and isolate them if they don't join the global fight.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the arrest of Pakistani Bahadur Ali was "living proof of Pakistan's complicity in crossborder terror." India has said Ali confessed that he was trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group.
"But when confronted with such evidence, Pakistan remains in denial. It persists in the belief that such attacks will enable it to obtain the territory it covets," she said on the final day of the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.
"My firm advice to Pakistan is: abandon this dream. Let me state unequivocally that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so," Swaraj said.
[Terrorism] [Kashmir]
Pakistan military prepares for a possible Indian attack
By Pamela Constable and Shaiq Hussain
September 22 at 1:29 PM ?
ISLAMABAD — Military officials are calling it a routine exercise, but the thunderous spectacle of Pakistani fighter jets touching down on a major highway Wednesday and Thursday, with commercial flights suspended and traffic blocked for hours, has fueled public speculation that something much more ominous is afoot.
The display of military readiness, which included a late-night jet flyover Thursday above this capital city, has come amid an unusually tense showdown with India, Pakistan’s nuclear-armed rival, following a militant attack Sunday that killed 18 Indian soldiers in the disputed border region of Kashmir. The air exercise led to the closure of commercial airspace over several regions of the country and triggered a sudden drop in the nation’s stock market.
Indian officials have accused Pakistan of sending the armed attackers across the de facto border into the Indian portion of Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, under public pressure to retaliate for Sunday’s assault, vowed that those behind the “despicable attack” would not go unpunished. So far, though, his government has taken no action.
Pakistani officials have strongly denied the charges, and its military leaders have declared that they are prepared to defend Pakistani territory from any attack by India, and also to launch a “counter-offensive” in case of an Indian strike. The two neighboring countries have been adversaries for decades and have fought four wars.
[Kashmir]
US lawmakers table bill to designate Pakistan a terrorist state
Two powerful American lawmakers have introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, saying it was time the US stopped paying the country for its “betrayal”.
The ‘Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act (HR 6069)’ has been moved by Republican Ted Poe and Democrat Dana Rohrabacher, who is a ranking member of the influential Congressional Committee on Terrorism.
“It is time we stopped paying Pakistan for its betrayal and designate it for what it is: a state sponsor of terrorism,” said Poe, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism.
“Not only is Pakistan an untrustworthy ally, Islamabad has also aided and abetted enemies of the US for years,” Poe said.
“From harboring Osama bin Laden to its cozy relationship with the Haqqani network, there is more than enough evidence to determine whose side Pakistan is on in the war on terror. And it’s not America’s,” he alleged.
[Pakistan US]
The US-India Logistics Agreement and its implications for Asia's strategic balance
by Abhijit Singh
Abhijit Singh (abhijit.singh27@gmail.com), a former Indian naval officer, is Senior Fellow and Head, Maritime Policy Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in New Delhi. You can follow him on Twitter at @abhijit227
Recently, editorial columns in Indian newspapers have become a battleground for strategic commentators to debate the merits of India’s defense logistics pact with the United States. Despite a public declaration by the Indian government regarding the “non-military” nature of the Logistics Exchange Memoranda of Agreement (LEMOA), the pact hasn’t resonated favorably with a section of India’s strategic elite, who reject the idea of providing the US military with operational access to Indian facilities. New Delhi might have much to gain from the LEMOA, which could be critical in establishing a favorable balance of power in Asia.
[Counterbalance] [Seapower]
Return to Kerala
by Richard Wood
The first time I came to Kerala was in 1994 when my family and I arrived to a midnight crowd at Thiruvananthapuram airport. Though it was late, the air was warm and on it you could catch a faint trace of spice and sweat, rancid and sweet in equal measure. We made our way to the white Ambassador car that had come to collect us. Soon after, I, still a boy, fell asleep on the backseat. On that drive to my mother’s ancestral village, a small fishing community some hundred kilometres up the coast, I woke up occasionally, catching glimpses of the star shaped paper lanterns that lit up the dark outside. Every now and then I would see an altar dedicated to Jesus surrounded by flashing red bulbs on the porches of boxy, concrete houses. It was Diwali and so the sleepy streets were brighter than normal. But, having just arrived from Singapore, this quiet, rural scene was not what I had expected from ‘India’. In my mind’s eye, the whole country was run down and crowded, dusty and falling to pieces with beggars who had hungry eyes assailing me at every turn. I am not sure where I had learnt this image from, but it was there nonetheless. At that stage I had only read Midnight’s Children, Rudyard Kipling and some smattering of Tagore; the photographs I had seen were of my grandparents and their cousins dressed in suits and saris for formal events in the years before the British had departed; and I was always reminded of ‘the homeland’ at the family gatherings of my youth in suburban Australia be that through the ever-present curry or the very bodies of my aunts, uncles and cousins. I did not have an unsophisticated idea of India then, but I still thought it would be a metropolis of poverty.
[Kerala] [Communism] [Diaspora]
India's embarrassing North Korean connection
Research centre in the Himalayan foothills under scrutiny after revelation that it trained North Korean scientists.
By
Nilanjana Bhowmick
New Delhi, India - Hong Yong-il is the North Korean embassy’s new first secretary to India and has been in the country for just a month.
He lives on the first floor of a two-storey house in a tree-lined lane in Delhi’s busy Lajpat Nagar.
The apartment is huge but nondescript, sparsely furnished; a modest affair as compared with many other diplomatic residences in the Indian capital.
Hong wears on his shirt a miniature badge, with the face of Kim Il-sung, the country's founding father and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.
Kim Jong-un says North Korea is a responsible nuclear state
This is not Hong's first stint in India. In 1996, he stayed in the country for nine months, studying a course in remote sensing technology at the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP).
The research centre is located in Dehradun, a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas, about 235km from the Indian capital New Delhi.
"Dehradun is a very quiet town," Hong said in an interview with Al Jazeera. "The course was very informative, the teachers were very good."
Hong was, in fact, one of the first students North Korea sent to train at the centre, a school set up in 1995 by the United Nations, to ensure that "in years to come, no country in the region will have to look abroad for expertise in space science & technology application".
[India NK] [Satellites] [Media] [S&T] [Training]
Pakistan bans N. Korean passenger planes
Pakistan has decided to ban North Korean passenger airplanes as part of United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang. / Korea Times file
By Lee Jin-a
Pakistan has decided to ban North Korean passenger airplanes as part of United Nations sanctions on the country for its nuclear and missile tests.
According to the U.S.-based Voice of America (VOA), Air Koryo's flight JS 161 stopped in Urumqi, China, last Tuesday instead of its usual layover destination of Islamabad, Pakistan, on its way to Kuwait. The returning flight ? Air Koryo JS 162 to Pyongyang ? also stopped over in Urumqi. VOA said the flight took two hours longer because of the ban.
[Sanctions] [US dominance] [UNUS]
The Rising Connected Consumer in Rural India
August 10, 2016
by Nimisha Jain and Kanika Sanghi
Rapid growth in Internet usage in rural India is a double-barreled game-changer, with up to 300 million Indian consumers expected to be online by 2020. While most of the focus to date has been on urban users, rural areas—which are home to two-thirds of the country’s population, or some 870 million people—are where much of the action will be for the rest of the decade. We expect that more than half of all new Internet users will come from rural communities and that rural users will constitute about half of all Indian Internet users in 2020. Cheaper mobile handsets, the spread of wireless data networks, and evolving consumer behaviors and preferences will all drive rural penetration and usage. They will both change how rural consumers interact with companies and give companies many more options for engaging with rural consumers.
[ICT]
Modi and CPEC Put Gilgit-Baltistan On the Table
A while back I wrote a piece, The Most Dangerous Letters in the World Aren’t SCS…They’re CPEC.
I made the case that the South China Sea was a case of high-functioning, cautious states not interested in blowing each other up…while in South Asia the core Chinese gambit, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, was at the mercy of Pakistan and India, two borderline dysfunctional states that were interested in blowing each other up.
Indian PM Modi added some tinder to the bonfire with his August 15 Independence Day speech and another internal speech, in which he made an issue of Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (POK), Balochistan, and (drumroll) Gilgit-Baltistan.
In my opinion, the ongoing unrest in India’s slice of Kashmir is an embarrassment and reproach to Modi, who has to live up to the rep of World’s Largest Democracy, Upholder of the Rules-Based Liberal International Order, and Worthy US Ally.
Awkward fact is that while the PRC has done an OK job of coloring inside the lines post-Deng, India suffers by comparison as a historically Anschluss-happy (Sikkim) terrorist exporting (Sri Lanka), nation-shattering (Bangladesh), bullying (Nepal), brutal occupier (Kashmir) and recklessly malicious regional actor (Afghanistan) with appalling social problems, and run by an unapologetic, pogrom-executing fascist.
Sorry, Indian friends!
[Kashmir] [Baluchistan]
India’s Modi mounts the Baluchi tiger
By M.K. Bhadrakumar on August 16, 2016
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sadly mistaken if he thinks that he gave a ‘tit-for-tat’ for Pakistan’s interference in Kashmir affairs by raising human rights violations in Baluchistan in his Independence Day address to the nation on Aug 15. Kashmir is an international issue, whereas Baluchistan is local. India’s friends like Iran will have reason to worry if the genie of Baluchi sub-nationalism is let loose. It seems Modi mounted the Baluchi tiger without realizing that he may find it difficult to dismount.
Narendra Modi earned a unique distinction this weekend as the first prime minister in India’s history to raise human rights violations in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, where a separatist insurgency has been raging for decades.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the gathering at the Red Fort in New Delhi on Monday.
Modi feels elated that Baluchi nationalists adore him for doing that. He chose his customary Independence Day address to the nation on Monday from the ramparts of Red Fort, seat of the Mughal dynasty in Old Delhi, to stage the theatrics rich in symbolism.
However, even as Modi was espousing the cause of the Baluchis on Monday, in his home state of Gujarat, a massive public rally was held by the Dalit community – ‘untouchables’ in Hindu caste hierarchy – with the support of Muslims, protesting against persecution and social and political discrimination.
To put matters in perspective, Dalit population in India is estimated to be in the region of 200 million; Baluchis of Pakistan number around 7 million.
Indeed, human rights and Modi government make an oxymoron. Political morality should have prompted Modi to steer clear of the human rights situation in Baluchistan. So, why did he decide otherwise? The short answer is – expediency.
. Pakistan has also been propagating that India is fostering cross-border terrorism in Baluchistan, aimed at undermining the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Modi may have unwittingly given credibility to these Pakistani allegations whose sole purpose is to malign India as a country that uses terrorism as an instrument of regional policy.
[Modi] [Separatism] [Balochistan] [Kashmir] [CPEC]
Quetta attacks send alarm bells ringing
In Pakistan’s Balochistan province, lack of empowerment, ethnic rivalries, poor academic infrastructure and law and order problems need far better resolution
Tariq Osman Hyder,
Special to Gulf News
Published: 19:38 August 14, 2016
What took place is tragically clear. On 8 August in Quetta, capital of the Pakistani province of Balochistan bordering both Afghanistan and Iran, the respected leader of the lawyers’ association was shot and killed in the morning and taken to hospital.
Members of the legal fraternity rushed there, congregating around the entrance. They were targeted by a suicide bomber killing seventy-four, mainly lawyers and some members of the media, and injuring over one hundred more. Probably the assassination and the suicide bombing were part of a plan. Tragically this possibility was not foreseen by the authorities despite a pattern of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere making gatherings, crowds, and demonstrations targets of opportunity.
Another factor is the initiation of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the $48 billion (Dh176.54 billion) process to develop Pakistan’s energy and communication infrastructure and link it with China. Forces opposed to Pakistan and its links with China consider Balochistan an opportunity to destabilise Pakistan in general and CPEC in particular.
[Pakistan] [Terrorism] [CPEC]
Bombing in Pakistan spotlights threats to CPEC
By Sajjad Malik
China.org.cn, August 14, 2016
The China-Pakistan economic Corridor (CPEC) is a massive economic project aimed at linking north-western China with the Gwadar deep seaport on the mouth of the Arabian Sea in the south of Pakistan. The project was announced in early 2015 when President Xi Jinping visited Pakistan. China is planning to invest about 46 billion dollars in several projects of infrastructure development and power generation collectively termed as the CPEC.
It is an example of win-win cooperation as both China and Pakistan would be beneficiaries. China will get an alternative route to approach the sea, which is also the shortest and will save both money and time to import oil from the Middle East and export finished products to the Gulf, Africa and Europe.
Pakistan has already declared it as a game-changer for the country. It will help to develop some of the most impoverished regions of Pakistan through modern road and rail links, create massive job opportunities and address the perennial power shortages. It brings investment into the country when no other nation is ready to pump money into Pakistan due to security reasons.
The CPEC is too good for Pakistan. That is why it also faces opposition from some quarters and countries.
[CPEC] [Pakistan]
How British let one million Indians die in famine
By Dinyar Patel Historian
• 11 June 2016
It has been a difficult summer for India.
Drought and a searing heat wave have affected an astonishing 330 million people across the country.
But this summer also marks the 150th anniversary of a far more terrible and catastrophic climatic event: the Orissa famine of 1866.
Hardly anyone today knows about this famine. It elicits little mention in even the densest tomes on Indian history.
There will be few, if any, solemn commemorations. Yet the Orissa famine killed over a million people in eastern India.
In modern-day Orissa state, the worst hit region, one out of every three people perished, a mortality rate far more staggering than that caused by the Irish Potato Famine.
[Imperialism] [Famine]
'Careful consideration' of India's NSG membership, says New Zealand
Sachin Parashar | TNN | Jun 8, 2016, 10.23 PM IST
India's diplomatic outreach for membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) will likely go right down to the wire, as it did 8 years ago when India finally managed to get a clean waiver from the Group to carry out nuclear commerce. One of the 3 main holdout nations then, New Zealand, has told TOI India's NSG membership application will be a subject of ``careful consideration'' later this month.
New Zealand was the most vocal among a group of 6 countries, including Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, and Norway, which India suspected were instigated in 2008 by China to resist the India-specific exemption NSG was contemplating. While the remaining 3 relented after a while, New Zealand, along with Austria and Ireland, continued to seek conditionalities in the draft circulated for waiver to India, a non NPT signatory.
[NPT] [India] [Nuclear deal]
Resistance to India joining nuclear suppliers group softens
Vienna | By Shadia Nasralla and Francois Murphy
A U.S.-led push for India to join a club of countries controlling access to sensitive nuclear technology made some headway on Thursday as several opponents appeared more willing to work towards a compromise, but China remained defiant.
The 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons by restricting the sale of items that can be used to make those arms. It was set up in response to India's first nuclear test in 1974.
India already enjoys most of the benefits of membership under a 2008 exemption to NSG rules granted to support its nuclear cooperation deal with Washington, even though India has developed atomic weapons and never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the main global arms control pact.
But China on Thursday maintained its position that the Non-Proliferation Treaty is central to the NSG, diplomats said.
The handful of other nations resisting India's admission to the group, including South Africa, New Zealand and Turkey, softened their stance somewhat, opening the door to a process under which non-NPT states such as India might join, diplomats said.
[Nuclear deal] [NPT] [Double standards]
Surging growth helps India retain fastest growing economy tag
New Delhi | By Rajesh Kumar Singh
India gathered momentum from January to March to extend its lead as the world's fastest growing large economy, helping Prime Minister Narendra Modi craft an impressive sales pitch for meetings with investors in the United States next week.
Having swept to power two years ago promising to revitalise Asia's third-largest economy, Modi has boosted spending on defence and infrastructure, while consumer demand has risen thanks to lower interest rates.
Those pro-growth policies helped gross domestic product grow a faster-than-expected 7.9 percent year-on-year in the March quarter, faster than the December quarter's 7.2 percent.
"Momentum is building up faster than anticipated and there is a demand pick-up on the horizon," said Shubhada Rao, chief economist at Yes Bank.
India's growth has overtaken that of fellow Asian giant China, which grew 6.7 percent in the March quarter - the slowest in the world's second largest economy in seven years.
[India China]
US lawmakers question India plans for Iranian port
A handout picture provided by the official website of The Center for Preserving and Publishing the Works of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on May 23, 2016, shows him (right) meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tehran.PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US senators questioned on Tuesday (May 24) whether India's development of a port in southern Iran for trade access risked violating international sanctions, and a State Department official assured them the administration would closely examine the project.
"We have been very clear with the Indians (about) continuing restrictions on activities with respect to Iran," Nisha Desai Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, said on Tuesday.
[Iran deal] [Iran India] [Independent states] [US global strategy]
Nuclear battles in South Asia
by Pervez Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 4 May 2016
The armies of Pakistan and India are practicing for nuclear war on the battlefield: Pakistan is rehearsing the use of nuclear weapons, while India trains to fight on despite such use and subsequently escalate. What were once mere ideas and scenarios dreamed up by hawkish military planners and nuclear strategists have become starkly visible capabilities and commitments. When the time comes, policy makers and people on both sides will expect—and perhaps demand—that the Bomb be used.
Pakistan has long been explicit about its plans to use nuclear weapons to counter Indian conventional forces. Pakistan has developed “a variety of short range, low yield nuclear weapons,” claimed retired General Khalid Kidwai in March 2015. Kidwai is the founder—and from 2000 until 2014 ran—Pakistan’s Strategic Plans Division, which is responsible for managing the country’s nuclear weapons production complex and arsenal. These weapons, Kidwai said, have closed the “space for conventional war.” Echoing this message, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry declared in October 2015 that his country might use these tactical nuclear weapons in a conflict with India. There already have been four wars between the two countries—in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999—as well as many war scares.
[Nuclear weapons]
Pakistan seeks 'clarification' of U.S. strike on Afghan Taliban leader
Pakistan is "seeking clarification" about a U.S. drone strike against Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday, after U.S. officials said Mansour was likely killed in an air strike on Pakistani soil.
"I have seen the reports. We are seeking clarification," Nafees Zakaria said in a statement. He added that Pakistan wanted the Taliban to return to the negotiating table to end the long war in Afghanistan.
"Military action is not a solution," he added.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was notified of the air strike which took place a day earlier, but declined to elaborate on the timing of the notification.
[Taliban] [Assassination] [Sovereignty] [Pakistan]
U.S. strikes top Taliban leader in Pakistan
By Missy Ryan and Tim Craig
May 22 at 6:05 AM ?
Footage purports to show the aftermath of a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan that is thought to have killed Taliban chief Akhtar Mohammad Mansour on Saturday, May 21. (Zahid Gishkori)
The U.S. military launched a drone strike against Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour on Saturday, the Pentagon said, dealing a potential blow to the group whose insurgent assaults pose a major obstacle to U.S. hopes for ending the war in Afghanistan.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military operation, said Mansour was probably killed in the operation, which took place about 6 a.m. Eastern time in a remote area near Ahmad Wal, a town in western Pakistan’s Baluchistan province. President Obama had authorized the operation, the official said.
The operation involved several unmanned U.S. aircraft, and it struck a vehicle in which Mansour was traveling. A second passenger, whom officials described as another combatant, was also probably killed, the official said, but a final assessment has not yet been made.
[The new Taliban leader whose shadow hangs over Afghan peace talks]
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook, announcing the airstrike in a statement, said Mansour had posed a danger to U.S. and Afghan forces and to local civilians and had disrupted U.S.-backed efforts to broker a political solution to Afghanistan’s long conflict.
[Taliban] [Assassination] [Sovereignty] [Pakistan]
Pakistani army ensures full security for CPEC
By Gong Jie
China.org.cn, May 18, 2016
The safety of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which connects Pakistan with China and the Central Asian countries, is the top priority for the Pakistani army.
Pakistan's military spokesperson Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa (L) and Ambassador of Pakistan to China Masood Khalid (R) at a press conference in Beijing on May 17, 2016. [Photo by Gong Jie/China.org.cn]
Pakistan's military spokesperson Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa (L) and Ambassador of Pakistan to China Masood Khalid (R) at a press conference in Beijing on May 17, 2016. [Photo by Gong Jie/China.org.cn]
"There is an integrated mechanism of all the state and provincial security operators which already exists. Additionally, a proper security division has been assembled, which consists of about 15,000 people. It is commanded by a major general. And an equally sizable security division is being put together for the south of the CPEC in the southern part of Pakistan," said Pakistan's military spokesperson Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa.
The top concern for the CPEC is the security situation, as there are 12,000 to 13,000 Chinese engineers and workers who are already working for CPEC projects in Pakistan.
"The Pakistani army is dedicated to the safety of the CPEC," said Pakistan's military spokesperson. "We are not only providing security for building the CPEC and the management of the CPEC, but also for building roads and infrastructure." According to the spokesperson, the Pakistani army's engineers are building a road about 874 kilometers long in the province of Balochistan in the south of Pakistan, 670 kilometers of which they have already completed. Therefore, the Pakistan army is providing both the security and the construction work for the road. The construction work is being undertaken in remote areas in parts of the CPEC by army engineers and army engineering units.
[CPEC]
The U.S. and India are deepening military ties — and China is watching
By Dan Lamothe March 2 at 2:57 PM
Navy Ensign Samson Cohen, from Washington, D.C., finds the range and speed of the Indian Navy Centaur-class aircraft carrier INS Viraat from the bridge wing of the USS Antietam during an exercise last month as part of India’s International Fleet Review 2016 . (Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class David Flewellyn/ Navy)
The U.S. military’s top officer in the Pacific urged Indian officials Wednesday to pursue even closer military ties with the United States — part of a broader effort by the Pentagon to strengthen a relatively new partnership in the region, as China expands its military footprint in ways that alarm its neighbors.
Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said that expanded cooperation between the United States and India will not only be critical to Washington’s re-balance toward the Pacific, but “will arguably be the defining partnership for America in the 21st century.” He said he shared a vision with U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Verma that Indian and U.S. naval vessels will soon steam together “as we work together to maintain freedom of the seas for all nations.”
The comments came as India has moved to strengthen partnerships not only with the United States, but with Australia, Japan and other U.S. allies in the region. India also has voiced opposition to some of China’s actions in the East and South China seas, where Beijing has attempted to assert its sovereignty.
“This is ambition in action,” Harris said, speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, a conference in New Delhi focused on geopolitics and geo-economics. “It ensures the vision of our country’s leaders by strengthening military-to-military collaboration and in the process, it will improve the security and prosperity of the entire region.”
[Counterbalance] [China confrontation] [Seapower]
Mountain Warfare Against China: US Plans to Sell 145 Guns to India
The U.S. government recently approved the sale of 145 lightweight howitzers to the Indian Army.
By Franz-Stefan Gady
February 24, 2016
On February 15, the United States submitted a letter of acceptance to India’s Ministry of Defense (MOD) approving the procurement of 145 M777 Ultra Lightweight Howitzers for the Indian Army, The Times of India reports.
According to sources within India’s MOD, the Pentagon’s letter of acceptance, submitted under the U.S. foreign military sales (FMS) program, will lead to a government-to-government contract within the next 180 days, should New Delhi accept the offer.
[Counterbalance] [China confrontation] [Arms sales]
The hugging Prime Minister fails Zuckerberg
L K Sharma 19 February 2016
India, according to the Facebook Director, would have been better off had it remained under British rule. Coming from an American, it was a bit ironical.
India’s decision to uphold the principle of net neutrality and outlaw Facebook’s Free Basics service, suffused with symbolism and irony, has highlighted the emerging digital empires and features of neocolonialism.
“Free Basics” are two words that are unpacked differently by different sections. The critics point out that these do not mean what the FB wants these to mean. To put simply, this controversial service offers free data usage but only to the websites prescribed by this social networking site.
The two most seductive words “free” and “basics” failed to work their magic in India despite Facebook’s massive advertising campaign. India’s telecom regulators ruled that such a service violates the principle of net neutrality and disallowed any discriminatory pricing for accessing data. So the Free Basics service was wound up and India’s poor, in whose name Facebook had campaigned, did not protest.
The adverse decision momentarily unhinged a Facebook Director Marc Andreessen. He denounced India’s ban on Free Basics, and smelt the outdated anti-colonialism in India’s stand. He called it “another in a long line of economically suicidal decisions made by the Indian Government against its own citizens”. Mr. Andreessen tweeted: “Denying world’s poorest free partial connectivity, when today they have none, for ideological reasons, strikes me as morally wrong”.
The country, according to him, would have been better off had it remained under British rule. Coming from an American, it was a bit ironical. Mr. Andreessen only fanned the dying embers of anti-colonialism. Unwittingly, he drew public attention to the link between imperialism and neo-imperialism or corporate imperialism.
[Sovereignty] [Corporate power]
Why India’s Leading University is Under Siege
by Vijay Prashad
Indian political culture sits atop a fine edged blade. Pushing down on it is the Extreme Right, whose political wing – the BJP – is currently in power. Intolerance is the order of the day. India’s celebrated Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen recently said, “India is being turned intolerant. We have been too tolerant with the intolerance. This has to end.”
In the marrow of the Extreme Right is a demand for discipline enforced by violence. Anyone who strays from the authority of its world-view – Hindutva – is either anti-national or a terrorist. Political murders of well-regarded intellectuals and activists, such as Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, and MM Kalburgi, put the nation on alert.
The death of a young student – Rohit Vemula – of the University of Hyderabad sent all kinds of people onto the streets. Rohit had been hit hard by social discrimination, which manifests itself as a political assault on socially oppressed communities. “From shadows to the stars,” wrote this young man who was fascinated by astronomy. It was an indictment of the social disorder. “Mother India lost a son,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I felt the pain.” He had waited five days to react, and reacted only after mass demonstrations of great feeling across the country. Rohit Vemula’s family rejected the Prime Minister’s remorse. They want to know why their son died. The answers lie firmly in the tentacles of the Extreme Right. It is where blame will eventually rest.
[BJP] [Hindu nationalism]
US-India Patrols in the South China Sea? Maybe Not Just Yet
India and the United States are talking about the South China Sea, but are they ready to hold joint patrols there?
By Ankit Panda
February 11, 2016
Early on Wednesday, Reuters published an interesting exclusive, suggesting that the United States and Indian navies are considering the idea of jointly conducting patrols in the South China Sea. It isn’t explicit if the idea under consideration is a bilateral U.S.-India freedom of navigation patrol, which would require Indian and U.S. vessels to challenge excessive maritime claims, or simply a bilateral passing exercise or other less contentious patrol. Both India and the United States support freedom of navigation, globally and in the South China Sea.
In recent years, as I’ve noted at The Diplomat, New Delhi has grown more accustomed to emphasizing the principle in its official statements. Last January, when Obama was in India for a state visit, he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed the importance of freedom of navigation. Just this past weekend, Modi, speaking before the 2016 International Fleet Review in Visakhapatnam, reiterated Indian support for freedom of navigation.
It’s not surprising that U.S. and Indian officials are talking about the South China Sea. Overall bilateral strategic and defense ties between Washington and New Delhi have been on a steady track of convergence over the past decade and the South China Sea has risen on both their radars in the meantime. India is seeking to “Act East” these days and has pursued a more active sort of diplomacy with ASEAN and its constituent member states. What’s more, India’s 2015 Maritime Security Strategy document and 2009 Maritime Doctrine have classified the South China Sea as a “secondary zone of interest” for the Indian Navy.
Per Reuters, no decision has been made on U.S.-India bilateral joint patrols. If they do take place, the report notes, they’ll happen later this year and will occur in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. If I were to prognosticate, I wouldn’t say it’s likely we’ll see these patrols take place soon—at least in the South China Sea. I’d be entirely skeptical of the idea that New Delhi would entertain undertaking freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea with the United States. The Indian military, as a matter of policy, generally only joins bilateral or multilateral efforts outside of its immediate region as part of a United Nations-sanctioned mission. As the Reuters exclusive further noted, “the Indian navy has never carried out joint patrols with another country.”
What’s interesting about this report is what it suggests about how Washington sees New Delhi’s role in the South China Sea. So far, the United States has sought support from its regional allies, including Japan, Australia, and the Philippines, as it has intensified its presence in the South China Sea. Following the October 2015 and January 2016 freedom of navigation patrols in the Spratlys and Paracels respectively, there have been varying calls for multilateralizing these operations going forward. Bringing India into the fold in the South China Sea would serve the U.S. goal of bringing allies and partners together against China’s excessive maritime claims in the area.
New Delhi is certainly interested in preserving the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, but its interests remain subtly different from U.S. interests in important ways.
[China confrontation] [South China Sea] [India] [Counterbalance]
A Chinese Company in India, Stumbling Over a Culture
By Keith Bradsher
Dec. 30, 2015
SHINDE, India — When a Chinese truck company wanted to open a factory in India, its president looked at sites that had a mountain in back and a river in front — especially auspicious locations in the traditional practice of feng shui.
The company, Beiqi Foton Motor, found a seemingly ideal spot, securing 250 acres of farmland in this western Indian village. Foton wants another 1,250 acres nearby to build an industrial park for suppliers.
But the mountain here is sacred to many Hindus. For at least 2,000 years, the cliffside caves have been home to generations of monks. One of the most revered Hindu saints is said to have attained a pure vision of his god during the 17th century while meditating in the highest cave overlooking what is now Foton’s site.
The culture clash was immediate.
Foton erected barbed-wire fences and hired uniformed guards to keep out trespassers. Cattle herders and Hindu pilgrims have repeatedly trampled the fences. The monks do not want a noisy neighbor.
“In today’s life, spirituality and science are both important, and neither should deny the other,” Kailash Nemade, a monk, said during a pause from chanting religious poems. “But this factory should not come here, because it will ruin the spirituality of the mountain.”
[ODI] [China bashing] [Religion] [India China] [Unique]