12-17-2003, 10:24 AM
<b>'India, China should be treated equally on strategic sales'</b>
While acknowledging a "strategic convergence" between India and China, speakers at a forum organised by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, expressed reservations, especially in the key area of Indo-US co-operation of 'Transfer of Technology.'
"Anything that is permitted say to go to China should also be permitted to go India -- as a baseline," Jonah Blank, Adviser on South Asia to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said.
However, concerned about the "balance of power" in the "region," Blank "clarified" that supporting India's "right to have" a certain item of technology doesn't mean the US should encourage India to buy a particular weapons system.
"The bigger the contract, the more contracts, the more weapons systems that are being transferred, the stronger our ties are, is a flawed measure of relations," he said.
"We should always be looking at these systems with a view towards what do they do. Do they actually advance the security interests of the US and India," he said, adding he was "skeptical" of the Arrow Weapon System, Phalcon airborne early warning system and other deals.
"We should not just say they are big and therefore the US and India have strategic interests and we have to cooperate," Blank said.
In addition to being expensive, he charged that many weapons systems sold to India are either "destabilising" or "useless." If weapon systems are "effective" and change the balance of power in the region, Blank said, this is "dangerous and potentially destabilising.
While acknowledging a "strategic convergence" between India and China, speakers at a forum organised by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, expressed reservations, especially in the key area of Indo-US co-operation of 'Transfer of Technology.'
"Anything that is permitted say to go to China should also be permitted to go India -- as a baseline," Jonah Blank, Adviser on South Asia to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said.
However, concerned about the "balance of power" in the "region," Blank "clarified" that supporting India's "right to have" a certain item of technology doesn't mean the US should encourage India to buy a particular weapons system.
"The bigger the contract, the more contracts, the more weapons systems that are being transferred, the stronger our ties are, is a flawed measure of relations," he said.
"We should always be looking at these systems with a view towards what do they do. Do they actually advance the security interests of the US and India," he said, adding he was "skeptical" of the Arrow Weapon System, Phalcon airborne early warning system and other deals.
"We should not just say they are big and therefore the US and India have strategic interests and we have to cooperate," Blank said.
In addition to being expensive, he charged that many weapons systems sold to India are either "destabilising" or "useless." If weapon systems are "effective" and change the balance of power in the region, Blank said, this is "dangerous and potentially destabilising.