- Friday, February 28, 2025
The move would facilitate transfer of top American technology and defence equipment without much bureaucratic hurdles, amid growing challenges from China.
By: India Weekly Staff
AN INFLUENTIAL lawmaker in the US has revealed plans to introduce a bill to make India part of the NATO Plus grouping that would facilitate transfer of top American technology and defence equipment without much bureaucratic hurdles, amid growing challenges from China.
NATO Plus, currently NATO Plus 5, is a security arrangement that brings five aligned countries with NATO — Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel and South Korea — to boost defence and intelligence ties.
“Senator (John) Cornyn and I, my co-chair at the (Senate) Indian Caucus will be introducing this week both as a standalone bill and as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, an effort to upgrade India, US defence ties,” senator Mark Warner told reporters at a news conference in Washinghton on Tuesday (20).
“What we propose is adding India to the so-called NATO plus five arrangement, where the United States is able to transfer, with this little bureaucratic interference as possible, defence equipment in a very strong way,” he said.
Warner from the Democratic Party and Cornyn from the Republican Party are co-chairs of the Senate India Caucus, the only country-specific Congressional Caucus in the Senate.
“This current relationship is only between the United States and NATO and certain other key allies like South Korea, Australia, New Zealand. India ending into that category strengthens our incredibly important defence ties, particularly as we both grapple with challenges in particular around China,” Warner said.
Chairperson of the powerful Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Warner said this is an extraordinarily important week for US-India relations as prime minister Narendra Modi is visiting Washington for talks with US president Joe Biden.
“I’m looking forward to my opportunities to both visit with prime minister Modi and a variety of meetings, hear his presentation to the United States Congress and attend the state dinner in honour of prime minister Modi. Since India’s independence, its relationships with the United States have gone through a variety of phrases,” Warner said.
“We are now at a critical juncture of this relationship where we need to move beyond the kind of common descriptions of this tie between the world’s oldest democracy, the United States and the world’s greatest and biggest democracy, India, and turn that into a full-fledged partnership,” he said.
The Senator from Virginia said he expects expansion of some of the conversations that have been started around communications and technology.
(With agency inputs)
