A top Pentagon Commander has told U.S. legislators that the possibilities of NATO partnership with India and Brazil are “worth exploring”, as the two nations have great capabilities.
“Just to really push a little further out there, two nations that I think are worth exploring possibilities with are India and Brazil. They both have great capability. They could operate with us, for example, in the piracy mission should they choose to do so,” said Admiral James Stavridis, Commander of U.S. European Command (EUCOM), and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
This is for the first time possibly that a top Pentagon commander is making such a statement on partnership between NATO and India. The Pentagon official was quick to inform legislators that this idea of his could be a little bit far-fetched.
Adm. Stavridis, who was responding to a question from Congressman Loretta Sanchez at a Congressional hearing on Thursday, said that exploring the possibilities of NATO building partnership with India was last on his list of four priorities of NATO’s expansion and partnership with other countries.
“I would look first and foremost at building on the coalition in Afghanistan. Twenty eight NATO nations, but we have 22 other nations who are partnering with NATO in Afghanistan. This is many Pacific nations, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Tonga. So I think that that coalition base gives us one set of potential partners looking forward,” he said.
“Secondly, we have two organisations that reach beyond NATO. Today, the Mediterranean dialogue, we’re in the process of talking, for example, with Libya. Already many of the other nations in General Ham’s region are part of this. The nations around the Mediterranean are natural NATO partners,” he said.
The commander said that the partnership with Istanbul Cooperative Initiative, consisting of the Gulf states, had helped the U.S. in anti-piracy operations.
Adm. Stavridis said during the upcoming NATO Summit in Chicago, the leaders would review its policies and will present the alliance’s path forward in total on nuclear weapons.
“In terms of NATO continuing to finance the infrastructure and what are the costs, the costs are relatively significant in protecting these weapons; and thus, we have to, as an alliance, make decisions about whether we want to maintain them or not,” he said, adding that the decision on the issue would be taken soon.
India must not ever make the mistake of falling for a NATO link, especially with Washington offering the carrot of a UN high table seat in return as Pres Barack Obama mentioned during his India visit earlier. USA wants India to send our army to Afghanistan and a standing demand on this from erstwhile NATO Secy Gen already exists. As it is, we had no business to get involved in Afghanistan - we tamely carried out George Bush's diktat in this regard. On the contrary, we should now extract ourselves from Afghanistan and only return under UN aegis after stability returns there, something that will not happen in the near future.
Mr. Ajay Singh's comments are worth pondering seriously.
First transfer 5 large aircraft carriers of USS-Kitty Hawk standard to India to enable Indian Navy emerge as a true blue-water navy & help us secure our unsecure coasts. After that we will talk.
Not a good idea from India's point of view. NATO is a western power block and with the shifting balance of power to the East, NATO is looking to retain influence and counter China. Rather than join an alliance as a second rate partner subservient to the US (which is pretty much how NATO works) or get drawn into needless conflict with China it would be better for India to work towards becoming an independent and dominant power in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Those who operate in the IOR, whether NATO or China, would do so under Indian leadership. For India to emerge in this role we need to take economic growth to the next level where all-round prosperity and a decent minimum standard of living has been achieved for all Indians; a stable polity based on improved quality of political leadership and stronger institutions; a more powerful military capability that puts us ahead of even the US when it comes to the IOR; and drawing in all South Asia including Pakistan into our embrace.
Yes after losing lot of their private in Afgan , now they are looking for populous country like India and Brazil to do their frontline,
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