But India does stand to gain by signing the LEMOA and other agreements. For example, India, which has one aircraft carrier and lacks the capacity for far-sea operations, could potentially gain access to US military bases in the Indian Ocean, such as Diego Garcia and Djibouti. We conduct more military exercises with the US than with anyone else, and our military is increasingly looking to equip itself with American-built China wholesale Illuminated sign military equipment (even though we will remain overwhelmingly dependent on Russian equipment for the foreseeable future).France has signed a similar agreement but that has not drawn it into these conflicts. But this strengthening has been happening for more than a decade.This is happening as a conscious strategic choice that the last three Indian governments have made, partly because China’s increasing military strength can no longer be ignored and partly because China’s behaviour over the last decade has become increasingly assertive.

India needs to beef up its military capabilities and it’s It is only natural that India will look to the US because both countries share a common perception about China’s rise.Signing these agreements will not make the US our ally, nor will it solve all our differences with Washington. This will enhance India’s reach in a big way and provide the much-needed logistics support to carry out a variety of missions in the Indian Ocean.

Dr Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan heads the Nuclear and Space Policy Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi$It’ll enhance our defence against China***.The LEMOA does strengthen US-India military-to-military relationship.The absence of these umbrella agreements have hindered India-US military-to-military cooperation: India has been denied certain equipment with CISMOA-category communication systems, and equipment that India has acquired, such as the P-8I anti-submarine aircraft, have been stripped of some of its most useful equipment because India has not signed of the agreements