NEW DELHI, 18 February — The head of the United States’ armed forces arrived here yesterday and promptly declared warming military ties between the two nations as vital in the fight against global terrorism.
“A solid military partnership is important for the nations’ common goal of defeating terrorism,” the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen. Richard Myers, said in a statement released soon after landing in the capital.
Myers said strong India-US military ties were also “central to maintaining long-term stability in Asia” and he intended to discuss these issues with Indian military officials today.
Myers described the warming relations between the US and India as unprecedented and said defense cooperation would lead the way in continuing to transform bilateral ties. Myers, who is visiting Delhi at the invitation of Defense Minister George Fernandes, will meet army chief Gen. S. Padmanabhan, who is also the chairman of chiefs of staff committee, today.
A meeting between Myers and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra was also on the cards, an official said.
Signs that defense relations between India and the US have undergone a radical change were evident from a statement by Fernandes last week.
“We are looking at acquiring more sophisticated weaponry from the US which other nations are not in a position to produce and deliver at short notice,” Fernandes said. His statement came after Delhi failed to clinch a raft of billion-dollar defense deals with Russia, India’s major source of military hardware and its Cold War ally.
The visit by Myers is the second by a chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to Delhi in less than a year — Myers’ predecessor, Henry Shelton, came in July.
Myer’s visit comes after India and the US resumed meetings between their armed forces last year, after a gap of nearly five years.
Defense ties between the two countries were frozen in 1998, when Washington imposed military and economic sanctions in response to India’s shock nuclear tests in May of that year.
