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India and the US Central Command
The Army chief, General V K Singh’s planned visit to the headquarters of the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida during his trip to the United States next week will mark an important milestone in the evolution in Indo-US defence ties.
Until now, India has warily watched as the CENTCOM became a powerful spokesman for Pakistan’s interests in the Pentagon. It is the PACOM, or the Pacific Command headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, that deals with military cooperation with India. The dividing line between the operational responsibilities between the two major American theatre commands runs along the India-Pakistan border.
PACOM sees India's centrality in ordering a new Asian security system amid the rise of China and has been pressing for greater sensitivity in Washington to India’s regional interests.
But it is the CENTCOM, which deals with the ongoing American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has tended to prevail in Pentagon when it comes to issues between India and Pakistan.
In all capitals, the urgent always drives out the important. After all, Pakistan is critical to the success of the current American military operations in Afghanistan while India's importance in East Asia is only of long-term significance for the United States.
Recall the US commander of the Afghan forces, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, endorsing in 2009 the Pakistani position that the Indian presence in Afghanistan is destabilising. It underlined the fact that CENTCOM, so focussed on engaging Pakistan, has not heard let alone understood India's views on Afghanistan.
Given India's problems with Pakistan, its high stakes in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, it made little sense for Delhi to limit its interaction with the Pentagon to the PACOM alone.
In the early years of the last decade, the Bush Administration, as part of its effort to intensify the military engagement with India, offered to link the Indian military establishment with the CENTCOM.
Washington suggested that India could post an officer at the CENTCOM for military liaison. An ultra-cautious Delhi turned down that offer.
That India has chosen to pick up the threads and send a brigadier to the CENTCOM underlines more than pragmatism. It underlines the recognition in Delhi of the need to establish a professional military conversation with the United States on Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Gulf at a time when the regions to the west of us are undergoing a period of great turbulence.
India and the US Central Command
