A top expert at a major conservative think tank in Washington is urging the United States and India to ramp up their defense partnership, even as they clash on issues like trade. Robert Peters, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, argues in a new report that both nations share a key goal: stopping China’s growing influence in the region.
In his paper, “The United States and India: A Call to Confront the Shared China Threat,” Peters pushes Washington to boost ties with New Delhi. He highlights how China is building bases and cozying up to countries around India, creating an encirclement. “The United States and India both have an interest in preventing Chinese hegemony in the Indian Ocean and countering the encirclement of India by Chinese bases and states friendly to China,” Peters writes.
To fight back, Peters suggests the US sell advanced weapons systems to India, team up on developing key military tech, and launch joint diplomatic efforts in the area. He also calls for sharing naval intelligence to help India build a “strategy of denial” in the Indian Ocean—essentially blocking China’s moves there.
Peters draws from his time in the Obama administration, where he advised on countering weapons of mass destruction at the Defense Department. He notes that India is already stepping up its maritime surveillance and space tech with regional partners. “India is expanding and enhancing maritime domain awareness and space-based surveillance data with neighbors and regional partners,” he says. “The United States should likewise increase its sharing of naval intelligence with India in the Indian Ocean.”
These ideas come at a time when US-India defense links stay solid amid trade tensions. Just this week, Indian Ambassador to the US Vinay Kwatra met with visiting officers from India’s Armed Forces Medical Services in Washington. “The visit is aimed at enhancing cooperation in military medicine, which is an important pillar of a strong bilateral defense relationship between India and the US,” Kwatra posted on X. In mid-September, he also sat down with US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby at the Pentagon.
Peters goes further, recommending the US help India grow its homegrown drone industry to counter China along the border. American drones are powerful but pricey, he points out. India could produce cheaper ones in large numbers to deploy north and deter aggression. “One critical way the United States can aid India in defending its territory on the subcontinent is to supply India with the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike assets it needs,” Peters writes.
He envisions a two-way street for military sales, not just from the US to India but the other way around too. As India builds a top-tier defense industry, the US should back it. “Exports of military hardware from India to other nations in the Indo-Pacific and to Africa would fill a gap that might otherwise be filled by China,” he adds, benefiting partners both countries value.
Finally, Peters warns the US to stick to shared interests like countering the China threat and skip lecturing India on internal matters. “India is an extremely critical partner of the United States, and both parties will lose out if the relationship is not maintained,” he stresses. Strengthening US-India defense cooperation could be a game-changer in the face of rising tensions in Asia.
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