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India Builds Military Links With U.S. and Israel
WASHINGTON, July 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Just after Indian officials signed an expensive deal earlier this week between Israeli and Indian aircraft industries, India's top military leaders met Thursday in New Delhi with the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Henry Shelton.
Shelton arrived late Wednesday for the highest-level U.S. military visit to India since India's underground nuclear tests in 1998.
"India is a major power with global influence and I hope we can establish a strong military-to-military relationship," Shelton said in a statement released here soon after his arrival.
"My trip, and Indian Defense Minister Jaswant Singh's meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, reflect our desire to broaden and deepen our engagement with India on defense issues," he said.
Following a ceremonial welcome, Shelton met with his hosts, naval chief Admiral Sushil Kumar, army head S. Padmanabana, air force chief A.Y. Tipnis and National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra for "lengthy, private and confidential" discussions, according to a spokesman, and was due to meet Defense Minister Jaswant Singh later Thursday.
Earlier this week, India made moves to forge military links with Israel as well. A delegation of senior officials from the Indian Army and India's military industry arrived in Israel Sunday and signed an unprecedented agreement on Monday for cooperation between Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and its Indian equivalent.
The Israeli Daily Ha'aretz said in an editorial that, "the Defense Ministry had eagerly awaited the visit, which reflects the flourishing relations between the two countries."
The agreement, signed between IAI officials and the Indian defense ministry delegation led by General Subir Datta, would guarantee an Israeli supply of sophisticated radar systems, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and an upgrading of Indian aircraft with avionics systems, the Indian spokesman said. IAI, which specializes in high tech weaponry, will transfer Israeli technology to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
The sale of three Phalcon early warning aircraft systems is also understood to be the part of the upcoming cooperation between India and Israel, and sources say that Israel has shown keen interest in a pilotless target aircraft, the Lakshya, made by India.
According to the Indian Daily Newspaper, The Times of India, the $2 billion contract is to boost cooperation in weapon systems and technology, an Israeli defense spokesman said Tuesday.
But the visit of the Indian delegation takes on a new significance against the backdrop of recent media allegations that Indian peace troops in Lebanon were bribed by Hezbollah fighters to kidnap three Israeli soldiers last October.
A Ha'aretz article Thursday said the allegations made the timing of the Israeli-Indian military deal very awkward.
"The visit of the delegation from India coincided with the reports about the involvement of the Indian contingent in UNIFIL [the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] in the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers last October," the article said.
The paper referred to a Voice of Israel radio interview Sunday with a senior Israeli Army officer who said that it was impossible for the soldiers of the Indian contingent not to have known about the kidnapping, which took place in their sector.
"There are a lot of questions about the performance of the Indian force," the senior officer said, adding, "The Indian force wasn't any great shakes."
He also drew a distinction between Indian soldiers and UNIFIL troops from other countries. The soldiers from Ghana and Fiji were given high marks.
The Ha'aretz article also said that on Sunday afternoon - the day before the agreement was signed - Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer met with the delegation from India.
In a statement issued after the meeting, the defense minister contradicted what the senior officer had said earlier that day.
"The defense minister told the guest that Israel regrets the reports in the media, which are creating a misleading image of the Indian soldiers in Lebanon," the article reported. "The minister said we have nothing against the Indians and that our complaint is directed solely against the United Nations Organization."
Yaron Vatikai, the defense minister's media adviser, was quoted by Ha'aretz as saying: "We are not certain about the authenticity of the reports. Some of them, including those about money that Indian soldiers received from Hezbollah, are speculative. Israel's policy is not to point the finger of blame at the Indians but at the U.N."
Earlier this year, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was quoted by news agencies as saying that his country "will work to strengthen its relations with Israel."
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