The United States is gradually building security ties with India but there is no need for a formal defence treaty between the two countries as they can cooperate without any such agreement, the Pentagon said. "We have no plans on creating a special defence treaty or any signed agreement. Most importantly, I don't think we need it," Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Southeast Asia Bob Scher said at a briefing.
He was providing an insight into the Report to Congress on US-India Security Co-operation, which was delivered to Congress this week. "I think we've seen that there is a tremendous amount of co-operation that we can and continue to build on, that we can do with India minus any kind of formal agreement," added the official, who was questioned if there was a defence treaty in the works between the United States and India on the lines of New Delhi-Moscow pact.
Continuing, Scher explained that US-India relationship "is not an allied relationship." "This is a relationship of equals, and that we're looking together to see how we can work together. And we don't really have any need or see any purpose in having, necessarily, a document that codifies this.
"We really are still emerging in this defence relationship. To some extent it has only started in 2005. And we're building slowly, gradually, but I think in clearly a positive direction to build closer ties and do more together. And that's really the measure of the relationship." Asked how Islamabad should interpret the Pentagon report on US-India defence co-operation, the official responded: "It's important that none of us think about relationships in this region as a zero-sum game. And it is - we have valuable relationships with Pakistan and valuable relationship with India. And these things coexist and can coexist, and it is, as I said, not meant to be and shouldn't be seen as a zero-sum game."
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.