India, US sign military data exchange agreement
The Secretary of State and the US Minister of Defense were on an official visit to India on Tuesday, for a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Foreign Affairs in India.
AP Photo / Altaf Qadri
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The Secretary of State and the US Minister of Defense were on an official visit to India on Tuesday for a bilateral meeting called “2 + 2”.
This meeting was initiated to strengthen ties between the two countries and, among other things, to counter the growing influence of China.
Washington and New Delhi have just signed a major military data exchange agreement.
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With our correspondent in New Delhi
,
Sébastien Farcis
The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement, or BECA, will allow a direct exchange of satellite and topographic information between the Indian and American armies.
Most of this data will not be classified defense, but a clause also allows this option.
This agreement will first offer India more precise maps of the sub-region, and particularly of Pakistan and
China
, two countries hostile to India.
But above all, this will allow the Indian army to synchronize its instruments with American satellites and its GPS system, in order to provide greater precision to its missiles and drones.
This is the fourth agreement in 18 years between the two countries concerning the exchange of military information, and it further strengthens their so-called Indo-Pacific alliance, which aims to counter China's influence in the region.
Beijing has also received the message, and urged the United States "
to stop sowing discord between China and countries in the region
."
A discord that is already well established: the Indian and Chinese armies clashed in
the mountains of Ladakh last June
, causing the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese.
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