Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter plans to travel to India later this summer in part to forge ahead on an initiative aimed at easing defense trade between the two countries, the Pentagon said.
Carter met Thursday with a group of Indian parliamentarians at the Pentagon and discussed the initiative announced by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during a June 6 visit to New Delhi. In the meeting with the lawmakers, Carter underscored the “huge strides” that have been made to advance the U.S.-India defense relations, Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
“Deputy Secretary Carter discussed the new initiative he is leading on behalf of the Department of Defense to streamline our bureaucratic processes and make our defense trade more simple, responsive and effective,” Little said. A Pentagon spokeswoman said the date for Carter’s trip has not been set.
Growing defense ties would mark yet another step the two countries have toward closer ties since the frosty era of Cold War relations. The United States views India as a key power in South Asia to balance Chinese ambitions in the region.
The United States and India signed a landmark agreement in 2008 allowing India to buy nuclear technology and fuel from U.S. suppliers. The deal came after years of difficult negotiations in part aimed at ensuring India, which is not a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, separated its civilian and military nuclear programs.
Panetta said during his New Delhi trip that U.S. military export laws and processes are a “bureaucratic nightmare” that need to be changed.
“What we’re finding is…we have allies that are interested in technology,” Panetta said. “We want them to develop their capabilities, we want them to be able to strengthen their security, and yet, in many ways, some of these requirements inhibit us from doing what we think needs to be done,” he said.
Panetta said the initiative’s goal is to bring changes to the Export Control Act that would require congressional approval, but also to eliminate barriers in the Pentagon to speed up the process. He said putting Carter in charge of the initiative allows for taking an overall look at the broad strategy and determine what India needs across the entire program.
“In that way, it can, instead of doing this hit and miss with each system, look at the whole package and see if we can’t speed up the entire process of providing these systems,” Panetta said.