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There is a canny local saying in Marathi: “Jasa dista, tasa nasta” (it isn’t what it looks like). It aptly describes the relationship between India and the US in the time of President Donald ‘Destabiliser’ Trump. In a wild swing from bitterness, the 10-year ‘Framework for the US-India Major Defence Partnership’ freshly signed in Kuala Lumpur by India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth takes the relationship to a different level. It could be pivotal for the region and the world. It elevates the bilateral defence ties cemented in 2015. The comprehensive policy roadmap provides a 10-year strategic blueprint from joint operations to research and development. We are talking military coordination, real-time intelligence sharing, and joint exercises. The framework also takes technology cooperation several notches up with joint development and production, and tech transfers in artificial intelligence, drones, quantum, and advanced weaponry. It builds on a broad partnership like iCET (Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology) and INDUS-X (India-US Defense Acceleration Ecosystem). It upgrades existing pacts like Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), and Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Intelligence (BECA). The agreement is a big step towards a free, open, and rules-based Indo-Pacific. It will serve as a bulwark against China’s aggression. Then there are implications of this agreement which exist beyond the obvious. India could emerge as the US’s arsenal foundry, with America giving defence manufacturing contracts to India like F-414 engines and MQ-9 drones. This will bypass China’s supply chains, and turn India into a USD 100 billion-plus export hub by 2035. It gives Trump a compelling reason to rethink tariffs. India’s projected USD 50 billion US defence purchases create a defence trade parity and opens gates for India to export Akash missiles to US allies like Philippines and Vietnam. India will be able to access US satellite intel and airborne warning and control systems to monitor Ladakh and Taiwan in real time. It lends teeth to offensive Indian Ocean ops — for example from Andaman bases for QUAD carrier groups — with focus on China’s oceanic worry, the Malacca chokepoint. Besides, without denting the robust India-Russia ties, the new framework reduces Delhi’s arms dependency on Moscow. Experts say India can secure assurances against CAATSA sanctions as well as supporting technology for F-35 planes in exchange for giving US firms prime slots and subsidies in semiconductor factories being set up in Gujarat. India and the US can now jointly contain China’s anti-satellite swarms in a crisis in the Himalayan theatre or Taiwan. The agreement also gives India the opportunity to earn from NASA for lunar mining. This is a win-win for both Modi’s muscular nationalism and Trump’s ‘America First’ administration. US hawks may look at India as the ‘new Israel’. India does not become a vassal state or lose its multi-alignment in QUAD and BRICS. The defence framework has the potential to tilt Asia’s balance permanently. Hegseth has said that the India-US ties have “never been stronger”. It now becomes difficult for even his mercurial boss to ruin the moment. Abhijit Majumder is the author of the book, ‘India’s New Right’. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
