Description: The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency within the US State Department has announced the approval of arms sales to India amounting to $93 million. India would receive Javelin anti-tank missile systems and Excalibur guided artillery munitions which would integrate into its defense forces. The Excalibur guided artillery munitions have already been used on India’s M – 777 howitzer guns, while the Javelin anti – tank missiles would reinforce the military’s ground deterrent capabilities. The arms sale arrives as a signal of easing in trade tensions between the two countries after India also announced it would reduce its reliance on Russian oil and gas and commit towards importing US liquified petroleum gas in the future. The arms agreement positions the US as India’s third major defense partner after Russia and France.
Impact: The US trade conditioning has resulted in India succumbing to the pressure and agreeing to more favorable trade terms with one of its most important strategic partners. The arms sale coupled with the commitments by India to gradually reduce its imports of Russian oil and gas indicates normalization of bilateral ties in times when the security conditions in south Asia are extremely volatile considering the tensions between India and Pakistan and Pakistan and Afghanistan. India’s commitments to the US enforces the country’s strategic ambiguousness and strengthens its trade versatility and defense capabilities in the long – term. Having previously signaled potential closer ties with China, the backchannel trade negotiations with the US have evidently resulted in reaching some sort of a compromise which would see both India and the US benefiting from restoring their traditional partnership across several strategic sectors.