India Strengthens Defence Partnership with Britain

New Delhi: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, prepare to meet in Glasgow on the sidelines of COP-26, India and Britain have agreed to an important defence partnership.

This is the Memorandum of Agreement on Logistics Exchanges or MALE and it will be similar to pacts India has only with the United States of America, Japan and Australia– all Quad countries– and France. India has agreed to but not yet signed a similar agreement– the RELOS– with Russia. With MALE happening, India will have logistics agreements with the AUKUS countries as well.

The agreement will allow Indian ships and aircraft to enter British ports and airports without prior permission and vice versa. Considering that the relationship between India and Britain are only improving, this is a major step forward.

The agreement comes just after the arrival with a British carrier group headed by Queen Elizabeth for exercises with the Indian Navy and a commitment that the Royal Navy would have a presence in the Indian Ocean over the next few years.

Behind the closer ties with Britain and other countries is the rise of China as a military power, worrying for all neighbouring countries.

The Chinese plans to build a huge fleet of nuclear-powered submarines with the rapid expansion of the Huladeo Shipyard so as to build seven such vessels simultaneously is of considerable concern to all countries in the Indo Pacific region.

Source: ToI