INDIAN AIR CHIEF VISITS BURMA
The head of the Indian Air Force (and chairman of India’s chiefs of staff committee), Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne paid a visit to Burma beginning November 26 to further cement Delhi’s ties to the new reformist government in Naypyidaw. Brown’s visit comes just months after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit India’s eastern neighbor in 25 years. Indian defense minister AK Antony is expected to follow Browne in 2013. The Air Force chief led a five member “Composite Defense Delegation” including senior officials from India’s three military services. (Press Trust of India, November 25, 2012)
SRI LANKA SKIRTING SANCTIONS ON IRAN
Sri Lanka resorting to unusual methods to skirt US financial sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Sri Lanka is planning to use an estimated two billion rupees ($15 million) owed to Iran for oil imports on an irrigation scheme that Iran pledged to fund. In 2008, Iranian officials pledged $450 million for the Uma Oya irrigation scheme but failed to implement the plan due to a “lack of cash.” Sri Lanka, whose refineries are tailored to Iranian light crude, imported 92 percent of its oil from Iran before the US-led sanctions went into effect earlier this year. (AFP, November 26, 2012)
TURKEY WANTS PAK TO BUY CHOPPERS
A recent visit to Pakistan by Turkey’s undersecretary of defense underscores Turkey’s renewed push to sell arms to Pakistan; an effort that has been hampered by a lack of Pakistani finances. At Pakistan’s biannual defense fair Nov 7-11, Turkish companies secured orders for software for a combat management system, and opened early discussions on developing flight simulators for the Pakistani air force. Turkey is lobbying to sell Pakistan its T-129 ATAK helicopters to replace the country’s AH-1F Cobras. Brian Cloughley, Australia’s former defense attaché to Islamabad, says Pakistan’s struggling finances are making it difficult for Islamabad to procure new weapons systems but that Turkey and Pakistan may be able to “cobble together a deal, perhaps involving offsets, that Pakistan could afford, but it will take a lot of negotiation.” If the deal falls through, Pakistan has a “long term insurance policy” with China’s new CAIC WZ-10 helicopter, though it remains new and untested. China, unlike Turkey, can offer a “very generous economic package,” says Usman Shabbir of Pakistan’s Military Consortium think tank. (Defense News, November 24, 2012)
CHINA AND INDIA: NEW ROWS, NEW TALKS
China and India moved to boost economic and business ties by inking 11 memorandums totaling $5 billion in mid-November. The agreements were signed during a second round of Strategic Economic Dialogue in New Delhi, which focused on cooperation in infrastructure, high technology and energy. The SED comes against a backdrop of renewed tensions over the two countries’ disputed border, which will be addressed in an “informal parley” in Beijing the first week of December. National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon is expected to meet with outgoing Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo to discuss a proposal framework to resolve the dispute. Earlier this month, a new diplomatic row opened over the publication of new maps in China’s e-passports depicting the contested Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as part of Chinese territory. (Deccan Herald, November 28, 2012; Economic Times, November 26, 2012; Global Times, November 26, 2012)
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