India's non-aligned tradition is "receding", a former Bush Administration official has told a top Senate committee as he painted an upbeat scenario of growing Indo-US relations.
"I'd say of all the aspects of US-India relations; the defence component now is moving forward with the most speed. Nothing is fast in India but with the most speed in that context," Michael Green, a former Bush Administration official and now with a think-tank, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing on Asia Pacific.
"The bipartisan and continuous support for building this relationship is very positive thing for our country. There is still this non-aligned tradition in the ministry of external affairs but it's not growing. It's receding," he said in response to a question.
And public opinion polls about the US and India are very, very positive. "We do more exercises with India than they do with the whole rest of the world combined. We also sell a lot of stuff," he added.
"People forget we lost the fighter competition but we sell a lot of things to India. A 10-year vision would include regular Malabar exercises that would include the India Navy but also Japan, Singapore, Australia, you know, maybe China or others, depending on the exercise. You can do these in sequence and have different kinds of exercises," Green said.
In the commercial or defence industrial relationship, he said that there's potential for ASW Patrol, maybe even submarines 10 years from now.
"I wouldn't erase that. But it's not going to be a US Nuclear tech sub, it's going to be some version of a Japanese or Australian sub or maybe we help with the integration of the weapon systems. So, there's an industrial part," he said.
However, one of the most difficult parts of the relationship has been the intelligence relationship which is the life blood of any alliance or partnership. "And that's moving at a good direction too. So, sustained bipartisan commitment to their relationship is good," he said.
