“The pact complements the logistics support network between the quads,” Pankaj Jha, a professor of defense and strategic studies at O.P. Jindal Global University, told the Nikkei Asian Review, noting that India has also struck such agreements with countries that support the four-sided partnership, including France and Singapore. India`s agreement with Australia extends India`s reach to the southern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. These agreements go a long way in expanding India`s military reach, especially its maritime reach and influence in various regions that are of strategic importance to India. In practice, this saves a lot of time and reduces the overall cost of the long accounting exercises that the military otherwise has to deal with with each visit, e.B. when the respective armed forces are involved in operations such as humanitarian aid and disaster relief or even bilateral military exercises. A statement from the Japanese Foreign Ministry said the agreement will promote closer cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries and allow them to actively contribute to international peace and security. India and Japan have signed an agreement that gives their militaries access to each other`s bases for supplies and services, India`s Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Thursday. Commenting on the usefulness of these agreements with like-minded partners, Commodore Anil Jai Singh, Maritime Analyst, pointed out that in recent years, “the Indian Navy has adopted a multi-mission mission with 12 to 15 IN warships operating independently across the Indo-Pacific to monitor critical bottlenecks bordering the Indian Ocean to ensure the safe passage of trade.
Improve maritime awareness, provide humanitarian and disaster relief, address non-traditional and subconventional security threats, and a host of other functions. It is not possible for every ship to be accompanied by a logistics support vessel – so the availability of logistical and maintenance support in friendly ports is essential to the success of such operations. For more than a decade, India has avoided entering into military logistics agreements. But China has facilitated India`s accession to like-minded partners across the Indo-Pacific, including through logistics agreements. A week before Shinzo Abe leaves office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of shared memories with his “dear friend” and announced the signing of the long-awaited military-logistics agreement. When I wrote on these pages on August 24, I noticed that one of the reasons for India`s “basic” defense cooperation agreement with the United States was one of the reasons why India`s “basic” defense cooperation agreement with the United States. – including a logistical agreement – attracting so much political attention at the national level because “the texts of these agreements – or even the official summaries – remain secret and arouse mistrust in a country that deeply protects its sovereignty and independent foreign policy”. In the absence of a publicly available draft of the 2016 memorandum of understanding between the United States and the Indian Logistics Exchange, some analysts have confused it with a “status of the armed forces” agreement on fundamental rights and everything that would accompany it. The two pacts India signed with Australia and Japan are also expected to strengthen the quadrilateral partnership, or “quad,” which includes the United States and is seen by analysts as part of efforts to reduce China`s influence in the Indo-Pacific. India has already signed such agreements with the United States and other countries. Under the agreement on the mutual supply of supplies and services, the two countries will provide logistical support to each other`s armed forces in peacekeeping operations, humanitarian operations and when Indian and Japanese warships visit each other`s ports. At a summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on September 10, held by phone during the current pandemic, the two leaders reiterated that the agreement “will further enhance the depth of defense cooperation between the two countries and contribute to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region.” according to a statement issued by India.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Military logistics agreements are merely administrative arrangements between strategic partners that would facilitate the replenishment of fuel, rations and spare parts, as well as the mooring and maintenance of each other`s warships, military aircraft and troops during port visits and joint exercises on a reciprocal basis, essentially simplifying the process of extending logistical support to each other. The third clause of Article 2 of the agreement expressly states that this list of services “shall not be construed as including the supply of arms or ammunition by the Japan Self-Defense Forces or the Indian Armed Forces.” The agreement provides for the creation of a favorable framework for closer cooperation and interoperability and allows the armed forces of the two countries to use each other`s bases and facilities to repair and replenish supplies, the official said. India has already signed similar agreements with the United States, France and Singapore. China`s growing activities in the Indo-Pacific have motivated India to enter into military logistics agreements with various partners. In a press release, india`s foreign ministry noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart, outgoing Abe Shinzo, .”. agreed that the agreement will further enhance the depth of defense cooperation between the two countries and contribute to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region. Interestingly, the Japanese Foreign Ministry spoke of the agreement`s ability to allow the Japanese and Indian militaries to contribute to “international peace and security” without mentioning any particular theater. The bilateral agreement between India and Russia is called the Reciprocal Logistics Exchange Agreement (RELOS) and is similar in title to an Indo-US agreement. Agreement known as the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Understanding (LEMOA). Agreements such as the one India has just signed with Japan systematize the procedure for the mutual supply of goods and services relevant to the operations of both militaries, within predetermined accounting parameters.
This is different from such an exchange which, as in the past, takes place on an ad hoc basis. Simply put, these agreements, while important, are far from being a “military pact” (with all its connotations), as described by the Nikkei Asian Review, except perhaps in a very literal sense. The fact that India and Japan signed this agreement, which has been under negotiation for some time, in the midst of the Indochinese crisis in eastern Ladakh, provided an exciting backdrop for a boring agreement. India has such military logistics agreements with Australia, Japan, the United States – all four countries – as well as With France, Singapore and South Korea. The publicly available acquisition and cross-service agreement debunks military logistics agreements for many people in India. Similarly, India`s agreement with France extends the reach of New Delhi to the southwestern Indian Ocean region, where the French have a military presence and thus access to the Reunion Islands near Madagascar and Djibouti. India`s agreement with Australia extends India`s reach to the southern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. These are crucial, especially after China established its first military base in Djibouti in 2017.
As India continues to grow, so do its demands to go further into the seas and not just to be limited to the immediate waters around India. This has already enabled India to conduct a number of mission-based operations in the Indian Ocean region and throughout the Indo-Pacific. After years of negotiations, India and Japan have signed a landmark agreement that will allow their armed forces to access each other`s bases for logistical support, an important development that comes amid growing concerns about China`s military muscle flexion in the region, and India has so far had military logistics agreements with the United States. France, Australia, South Korea and Singapore. With the signing of the pact with Japan, India concluded a military logistics agreement with all other “quad” countries. The military agreement “will also improve interoperability between the armed forces of India and Japan, further increasing bilateral defence commitments under the specific [and] global strategic partnership between the two countries,” india`s ministry of defence said in a separate statement. According to Article 1 of the agreement, the logistics pact would cover the mutual use of supplies and services for the following activities – India and Japan have just signed a pact for defence logistics. Originally scheduled during Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s visit to Russia for the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in 2019, the bilateral logistics agreement has experienced several delays, but the RELOS is now expected to be signed during the visit of Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu in the coming months. Shoigu will be in India to co-chair the meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission, which deals with a number of military-technical cooperations between India and Russia. During the visit, the two countries will also sign a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between navies.
The signing of the agreement comes at a time when India is embroiled in a bitter border dispute with China and countries in the region are increasingly concerned about China`s growing self-confidence in the Indo-Pacific region. And we know this is annoying, because unlike other formal military logistics agreements in which India is involved, the text of the agreement with Japan is publicly available on the website of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to media reports, the Indo-Russian RELOS will give India access to Russian military installations in the Arctic. .