U.S.-INDIA DEFENSE TRADE UP BUT TREATIES STALLED
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen was in India July 22 and 23 to discuss defense and security cooperation and to assess the status of three pending security pacts sought by the U.S. that remain “deadlocked.” The agreements include a Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum Agreement (CISMOA), a Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), and a Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA). The U.S. and India are about to ink their largest-ever defense deal, a $3 billion contract for 10 C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlift aircraft, topping the $2.1 billion contract for eight P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft signed last year. However, the Indian side remains reluctant to cinch the proposed agreements ahead of President Obama’s visit to New Delhi in November. A top official told the Times of India the “LSA strictly remains a non-starter. We also have some serious misgivings about CISMOA and BECA… [LSA] is a politically contentious pact... the pact will benefit American forces more since they operate in our region, while we do not operate near their bases.” (Times of India July 22, 2010)
WIKILEAKS FINGERS ISI SUPPORT FOR TALIBAN
The “Wikileaks” saga, in which 91,000 pages of classified military documents on the Afghan war were provided to the whistleblower-friendly Wikileaks website, methodically documents the support provided to the Taliban by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI. The revelation has prompted Chris Alexander, a Canadian official who served as Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan and then as deputy head of the United Nations mission there, to argue in an Op-Ed for The Globe and Mail that, “The Pakistan army under [Chief of Staff] Gen. Kayani is sponsoring a large-scale, covert guerilla war through Afghan proxies – whose strongholds in [Pakistani] Baluchistan and Waziristan are flourishing. Their mission in Afghanistan is to keep Pashtun nationalism down, India out and Mr. Karzai weak.” Alexander cites the “dozens of reports” in the Wikileaks documents “tagging the [ISI] as the main driver of the conflict” as well as Gen. Kayani’s missive to Afghan president Hamid Karzai this spring that he was in a position to broker deals with the Taliban, which he considered a “strategic asset.” (The Global and Mail July 30, 2010)
PAK SLAMMED BY WORST FLOOD IN 80 YRS
Pakistan is confronting its worst flood in 80 years as flood waters and landslides have claimed an estimated 1,600 lives and affected up to 13.8 million people, with up to 6 million in need of immediate food or shelter. In terms of the number of people suffering, the disaster has surpassed the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2005 Kashmir earthquake and 2010 Haiti earthquake combined. Monsoon rains have prevented aid from being delivered, including to roughly 600,000 people cut off from the rest of the country in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known as the Northwest Frontier Province, which has been the worst hit of Pakistan’s four provinces. Aid efforts by the Pakistani government have been deemed insufficient and have generated widespread anger at the state while Islamist charities have sought to fill the void with their own aid operations. (Financial Times August 8, 2010; London Guardian August 9, 2010)
INDIA WALKS FINE LINE WITH BURMA
India received the military ruler of Burma, General Than Shwe, in late July for meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India has been walked a tightrope in its dealings with Burma, an autocratic, energy-rich neighbor under sanction by the U.S. and U.N. for an abysmal human rights record. India has in recent years been quiet on Burma’s suppression of democracy, judging that isolating the military junta simply pushes it nearer to China, which no compulsions about the country’s authoritarian nature and has been expanding its economic and diplomatic ties there. Burma holds large reserves of natural gas and previous stones and borders restive regions of India’s northeast where low-level separatist insurgencies have raged for years. (BBC July 25, 2010)