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Chaturanga

~ statecraft, strategy, society, and Σοφíα

Chaturanga

Tag Archives: intellectual property rights

The Elephant and the Eagle at Sweet 16

05 Sun Jun 2016

Posted by Jaideep A. Prabhu in India, South Asia, United States

≈ Comments Off on The Elephant and the Eagle at Sweet 16

Tags

Ajmer, Allahabad, ASEAN, Association of South East Asian Nations, Australia Group, Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation, BECA, China, CISMOA, Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement, Defence Technology and Trade Initiative, DTTI, European Union, free trade, India, intellectual property rights, Logistics Support Agreement, LSA, Make in India, Missile Technology Control Regime, MTCR, NSG, nuclear, Nuclear Suppliers Group, Pakistan, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV, smart cities, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, United Nations Security Council, United States, UNSC, Vishakapatnam, Wassenaar Arrangement, World Trade Organisation, WTO

It has been 16 years since George W Bush fundamentally altered the way the United States looked at India. As the old Cold War with the Soviet Union receded into memory and a new one with China appeared imminent, at least to the Bush White House, India emerged as an important potential ally in the new world order. India’s economy had recently started down the road to liberalisation too, making the South Asian country attractive to US industry as well as the government.

Despite frequent kerfuffles in the media – and there have been plenty – India-US relations have moved from strength to strength over the past 16 years. From the Strategic Quartet – high technology trade, space cooperation, nuclear energy, and missile defence – through the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership to the historic Indo-US nuclear deal and the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative, Washington and Delhi appear poised on the brink of a century-defining partnership. If state visits are any indication of warmth, prime minister Narendra Modi is visiting the United States at this moment for the fourth time in just two years – something his predecessor required nine years to necessitate.

Defence ties are usually the most prominent measure of relations between nations for obvious reasons: not only do they declare how much skin each state has in the other’s security, but they are also a statement of how much states trust each other with their prized technology. No wonder, then, that India’s defence purchases from the United States have attracted so much attention. Between CH-47 Chinooks, AH-64 Apaches, C-17 Globemasters, and C-130J Super Hercules, India’s aggregate defence acquisitions from the United States has crossed $13 billion. The loss of India’s Multirole Medium Range Combat Aircraft contract disappointed Washington but under Modi’s Make in India programme, US defence firms are considering moving the production of the F-16 and F-18 to India.

The United States has moved beyond the role of being a mere supplier of weapons to India: officials have been engaged in talks that, if successful, would result in the co-production of systems. Under the DTTI, the next generation of Raven unmanned aerial vehicle will be jointly developed and produced. Other projects include intelligence gathering and reconnaissance pods for the C-130J, mobile electric hybrid power sources, helmet-mounted digital displays for aircraft and helicopter pilots, high energy lasers, and chemical and biological warfare protection gear for soldiers.

Washington has also been keen to assist India with core defence technologies such as the development of jet engines and the catapult launching system on board US aircraft carriers. India’s Kaveri programme has been a miserable failure and with Delhi’s increasing focus on maritime security, the US offer could provide a healthy boost to Indian capabilities.

India’s change of mind on what the Pentagon calls the foundational treaties – LSA, BECA, and CISMOA – has been a welcome surprise. These agreements formalise the sharing of logistical facilities and align communication protocols between the US military and their partners, greatly enhancing the range and capabilities of both forces in joint humanitarian or security missions. Although the agreements will remain unsigned during Modi’s visit this June, it is reported that they are close to conclusion.

The United States’ support for Indian admission to the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council and technology export control groups such as the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Australia Group, and the Wassenaar Group gives some weight to Philip Zelikow’s statement in 2005 that the United States intends to help India become a major power.

Although both India and the United States have come a long way in defence cooperation, one cannot shake the feeling that both sides are still hedging from a complete commitment. India has lost no opportunity to stress that the signing of the foundational agreements with the United States will in no way erode its sovereignty, that it is happy to conduct numerous maritime joint exercises but will not be persuaded to conduct joint patrols, and that India sees itself as a friend and partner of the United States but not quite an ally. On the American side, senators questioned the wisdom of a bill that proposed elevating India to the status of a NATO ally in all but name given that the South Asian country did not see itself in that role. The US bill would have amended the Arms Export Control Act and made defence transfers to India quicker and smoother.

One hurdle in closer ties is Pakistan: India is displeased with the continued sale of US weapons to the Islamic republic despite ample evidence pointing to terrorist ties and an unhelpful disposition towards US goals in South and Central Asia. However, the dynamics of these ties have remained relatively unchanged since the 1950s: Pakistan provides services in the region that the United States cannot get elsewhere in return for White House forbearance on matters Islamabad sees as vital to its interests. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was basing privileges for US reconnaissance aircraft conducting missions over China and the Soviet Union; in the 1970s, Islamabad served as the channel to Beijing and a rapprochement with China; in the 1980s, it was the shipment of arms to the mujaheddin in Afghanistan. In the 2010s, Islamabad has become the conduit to the Taliban, with whom Washington hopes to negotiate a “decent interval.” Even now, though the United States has been urging India to play a greater role in Afghanistan, Delhi has declined, choosing to involve itself more in important but not critical facets of Afghanistan’s development.

India’s reluctance to play a more significant role in its own interests may frustrate observers but this has, understandably, in large part to do with the country’s capabilities. Couched in the rhetoric of multipolarity and morality, India’s inaction misleads the casual observer. The ignored pachyderm in the room is that Delhi lacks the financial and industrial wherewithal to flex its military muscle in Central Asia or the South China Sea, and any attempt to persuade it to do so will fail. The remedy to this is economic growth, technological development, and strategic coalitions.

On the surface of it, economic relations seem to have grown substantially between India and the United States. Both countries are investing more in each other’s economies and trade between the two stands hovers around $70 billion. More and more US companies are setting up shop in India as Indian companies are expanding their business beyond the Atlantic. Washington is the lead partner for developing Allahabad, Ajmer, and Vishakapatnam as smart cities. There is still plenty of room to grow and Modi has ambitiously suggested aiming for $500 billion in trade in a few years. However, there are several issues that will plague relations. The first is subsidies: Washington recently won a case against India at the World Trade Organisation that prohibited the Indian government from giving preferential treatment to domestic solar panel manufacturers. US firms are also pushing Washington to act against subsidies the Indian Space Research Organisation gets from the government for its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle programme.

A second hurdle is intellectual property. In several sectors, India has brought its laws into alignment with US and international norms yet there remain significant differences in philosophy. Pharmaceuticals is one such field, where Indian courts have been hostile to the US practice of evergreening patents, instead seeing a social dimension to the industry. India has also had disagreements with the United States on its agricultural subsidies and food security programme.

A sector-specific yet politically potent point of friction is nuclear energy. Although the Indo-US nuclear deal was announced in 2005 and came into force in 2008, there has been little movement on that front since. India’s nuclear liability laws were found to be at odds with international norms and it was only in 2015 when US president Barack Obama visited India during the Republic Day celebrations that some headway was made in easing the logjam. The Indian side came up with a convoluted mechanism to bypass its own law without losing face and satisfied Washington but private companies are still uncomfortable with the provisions. As a result, a number of nuclear energy projects have stalled across the country; GE has flatly refused to participate in the Indian nuclear energy market as long as the present law stands and Westinghouse has delayed the submission of its project proposals. The sins committed by the BJP while in Opposition have been visited upon the BJP while in power.

A probable future cause for concern is the US creation of large trading spheres via the Trans Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. India is not party to either of these blocs and its efforts to forge free trade agreements with important partners such as the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has proceeded at a snail’s pace. There is a danger that the implementation of the TPP and TPIP will take trade away from Indian shores to within the bloc, dampening much-needed Indian economic growth.

Many of these frictions arise from the fact that the US and Indian economies are at different points: certain Indian policies may not optimize on economic efficiency but are geared towards lifting more of its population out of poverty or establishing its own industries firmly in the international arena. Delhi and Washington have much work to do to negotiate through the clashing policies that will certainly arise in the future and early recognition and amelioration will insulate relations from harsh market realities.

After 16 years, India-US relations are on a firm footing. Much has been accomplished though a lot more remains to be done. It was feared that the warmth between the two would dissipate after the exit of Bush and the election of Obama but despite the lull due to an international economic slowdown and a paralysed UPA government, ties have started to blossom again in the past two years since Modi took office. India enjoys bipartisan support in the US and Washington a hesitant embrace in Delhi. Can relations be derailed? There will always be swings and roundabouts but it seems to have dawned on both countries that the geopolitics of this century are best navigated as friends than estranged democracies.


This post appeared on FirstPost on June 06, 2016.

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Great Expectations

20 Sat Sep 2014

Posted by Jaideep A. Prabhu in India, South Asia, United States

≈ Comments Off on Great Expectations

Tags

Afghanistan, Barack Obama, China, Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, CLNDA, economy, India, Indo-US nuclear deal, intellectual property rights, Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, Narendra Modi, nuclear, Pakistan, Richard Verma, taxation, United States

Narendra Modi’s meeting with Barack Obama at the end of this month after addressing a session of the United Nations General Assembly will close a most eventful month in Indian foreign policy. The beginning of September found the Indian prime minister in Japan, where he secured $34 billion in investments from Shinzo Abe; Chinese premier Xi Jinping’s recent visit secured another $20 billion in MoUs though the Chinese pointedly boasted about making deals worth five times that amount; Modi’s visit to the United States will end a flurry of diplomatic activity that has involved the three most significant countries to India.

Before the general elections, there was much speculation that Modi would shun the United States in favour of closer ties with his own neighbourhood. It was rumoured that this was partially due to a personal grudge over the US denial of a visa to him in 2005. However, the Indian prime minister has received overtures from the United States with unexpected warmth without ignoring India’s relations with its own region. Now, over five days, Prime Minister Modi will address the UNGA, meet with several members of the US Senate and House of Representatives, and end his trip with two days of discussions with President Obama.

Recent hiccoughs in the India-US romance have caused many to question the commitment of the other side; the Obama administration is seen by many Indians as relegating relations with the world’s most chaotic democracy to the doldrums after its heyday during the George W Bush White House, while Washington feels insufficiently acknowledged for bringing India in from the nuclear cold and opening its defence market to the country. It is hoped that Modi’s meeting with Obama will be able to smoothe ruffled feathers of bureaucrats and politicians at home as well as abroad.

If previous behaviour is any indication, the Indian premier will focus primarily on economics; Modi will raise the issue of work permits for Indians (H1 visa), seek US investment in India’s infrastructure, and invite assistance in improving his country’s manufacturing potential. Admittedly, there are quite a few disagreements between the two estranged democracies as the WTO deal proved last month. The challenge will be for both countries to take stock of the other’s position ideologically and politically as well as recognise the different stages of development, prosperity, and demographics the two find themselves in.

The United States has recently expressed willingness to begin joint defence production with India and doing so would allow Delhi to join the lucrative global armaments supply chain. The technology transfer and manufacturing experience would boost its own production as well as introduce India’s services in upgrades and maintenance to the world’s armed forces. With Modi Sarkar contemplating an entry into the arms trade, defence manufacturing would be a strategic investment.

For the United States, who has been eager to see India take up a greater role in Afghanistan, the sale of Indian weapons to Kabul is much desired. It will balance the influence of Beijing and Moscow on Kabul as well as help keep the Taliban at bay. Washington must have by now accepted the idea of Indian boots on the ground as unrealistic and providing material, training, and intelligence support to Afghanistan will have to suffice. There is a silver lining to this arrangement – Foggy Bottom’s naughty little friends in Islamabad will have less to be paranoid about than if they saw Indian troops on two fronts.

There are more economic disagreements between India and the United States than is sexy for the press to cover. India’s tax system, intellectual property, US labour laws, pharmaceutical testing, immigration, the WTO, and protectionist trade barriers are just a few of the concerns businessmen in both countries have. The recent nomination of Richard Verma as the US ambassador to India is a welcome move and if confirmed, Verma will have his hands full with economics rather than his specialties, non-proliferation and national security. Interestingly, defence cooperation, which was only a couple of years ago seen as the benchmark of good relations, will be important but less meaningful than the economic agenda.

Another item of interest to India is LNG exports from the United States. With increasing troubles in the Middle East and several of India’s assets in Syria, Iraq, and Sudan overrun by strife, Delhi is looking to diversify its purchases. Iran is not yet a viable option and pipelines from Central Asia would have to either connect to Chabahar via India’s much vaunted but as yet incomplete International North-South Trade Corridor or pass through the hostile territories of China or Pakistan. Until Chabahar and the INSTC is operationalised, the United States is the best medium-term option for energy. Presently, US gas is available only to countries with which the United States had a Free Trade Agreement. The Gas Authority of India (GAIL) received a special dispensation three years ago but Indian business is hoping Modi can persuade the US to issue a complete waiver.

Perhaps the single greatest issue for the United States during these talks will be the operationalisation of the nuclear deal. Unlike boring trade talk on solar panels, textiles, farm quotas, subsidies, or insurance sector reforms, India’s nuclear industry is not just a big-ticket item and public symbol but also an enormous business opportunity. Talks with Delhi have so far been lifeless on six Westinghouse reactors for Chhaya Mithi Virdhi and another six reactors from General Electric for Kovvada due to India’s unconventional nuclear liability law that holds reactor suppliers as liable as operators.

An agreement on nuclear energy will have tremendous multiplier effect – not only will it spur industrial growth and domestic personal consumption but the chances of a nuclear agreement seeing some aspects of the manufacturing supply chain move to India are high. The deal will also put pressure on Japan for a quick agreement on nuclear cooperation with India as both Westinghouse and GE are partnered with Toshiba and Hitachi.

The disappointed editorials in newspapers and blogs in India and the United States betray a palpable impatience for relations between India and the United States to improve rapidly. For the United States, a close ally in India renews the global order of Western-style liberal democracy; for India, the US economy is the quickest path to development and prosperity. After decades of Nehruvian economics, a young and aspirational India no longer has the patience to wait for state-planned growth.

However, Delhi has no intention of becoming another USS England; India has its own interests, which do not always align with those of the United States, processes by which it will do things, and a domestic audience which it has to keep placated. At best, Washington can expect India to be another France – difficult and exasperating, but an ally nonetheless. Similarly, India will have difficulty in convincing Foggy Bottom of setting Pakistan adrift; this will affect not just Kashmir and the South Asian nuclear balance of terror but also Afghanistan.

Both countries will occasionally be perturbed by the other’s positions on global events. Yet these disagreements need not derail relations every time if handled maturely and some notion of sphere of influence is respected. The most important thing the two nations can do to bring themselves closer is boost contact through trade, education, tourism, governmental official exchange programmes, or even regular joint military exercises. Indians and Americans must get to know each other beyond the occasional and sensational headline in the newspapers and on the television. Modi’s focus in his foreign policy dealings so far has been just that – trade as the foundation of cooperation and friendship. If that can be achieved, it may just be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.


This post first appeared on Niti Central on September 23, 2014.

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