US: India among partners to promote Indo-Pacific stability
Ajay Banerjee
New Delhi, January 6
The US has said it is transforming its military posturing in Asia and has listed India, among a handful of its partners, to promote stability and security in the Indo-Pacific. The US Department of Defense (DoD) has put out a fact sheet on its website detailing the transformation carried out during the year 2023. On India, it mentions how it was bolstering India’s defence modernisation plans. “This includes by advancing priorities outlined in the roadmap for US-India Defense Industrial Cooperation to co-produce fighter jet engines and Stryker armored vehicles,” said the DoD.
Military capabilities up
The US is deploying cutting-edge military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific. The US defence budget includes $170 billion for procurement to advance air, sea and land power, another $145 billion for research, development, test and evaluation while another $9.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.
It further spoke about expanding military ties (with India) “modernising the scope our military engagements including by incorporating advanced fighter aircraft and strategic bombers in our exercises which strengthens interoperability”. The India-US Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) was launched to promote partnerships between US and Indian researchers, entrepreneurs and investors, the US DoD said.?
It detailed military cooperation with India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines and the added US focus on Indo-Pacific.
The US has worked alongside allies and partners to deliver groundbreaking achievements for peace, stability and deterrence in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region during 2023. The US Secretary of Defense, Llyod Austin, is quoted saying, “In this decisive decade, 2023 will be remembered as a decisive year for implementing US defense strategy in Asia.”
The US is deploying cutting-edge military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific. The US defence budget includes $170 billion for procurement to advance air, sea and land power, another $145 billion for research, development, test and evaluation while another $9.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.
On the ‘transforming US regional force posture, the US DoD said that the US last year delivered historic achievements with allies and partners to make US force posture in the Indo-Pacific region more mobile, distributed, resilient and lethal. On this, it mentioned forward stationed key US military units to Japan, including a US Marine Littoral Regiment – the Marine Corps’ most advanced formation – and a US Army watercraft unit to significantly enhance combat-credible deterrence.
There have been more and longer expeditionary visits of US submarines to Australia and increased rotations of US bombers and fighters, expanded maritime and ground forces cooperation, enhanced space and logistics cooperation, continuing upgrades of key bases and movement toward the creation of a new submarine force in Australia by 2027. For the first time in 40 years, a US nuclear submarine docked in South Korea.
The US has four new sites in the Philippines allowing access to the US while a defence cooperation agreement has been concluded with Papua New Guinea.
