New Delhi: The Indian and the US air forces will significantly step upoperational cooperation to complement the strategic interests of the twocountries in the Indo-Pacific region, Chief of US Air Force General David LGoldfein has said, while expressing concern over China’s rising militaryinfluence over the area.
Calling India a “central strategic partner” of the US in pursuing commoninterests in the region, he said two of the world’s largest air forces weregoing to jointly shift the focus on the Indo-Pacific region while assertingthat the rules-based order must be preserved in the critical sea lanes.
Mr Goldfein, who held extensive talks with Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa andthe top brass of the defence set-up during his three-day India visit thatended yesterday, said the “Quadrilateral” coalition among the US, India,Japan and Australia would provide for deeper cooperation between the Indianand American air forces.
Asked if cooperation between the two forces would deepen in the wake of thefour countries joining hands, he replied, “I do (think so) and that is abig part of my visit and in my discussions here”.
In June last year, two Lancer heavy strategic bombers of the US Air Forcehad conducted flights over the South China Sea, sending a clear message toChina against its military build-up in the disputed area. Three US aircraftcarriers the USS Nimitz, USS Ronald Reagan and USS Theodore Roosevelt -have also been operating in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We have common interests in preserving the rules-based order. So while welook for opportunities for partnerships, it is actually appropriate alsofor us to be critical for those who are trying to change that in ways thatmay not benefit the region,” he told PTI in an interview in New Delhi.
In November, India, the US, Australia and Japan gave shape to thelong-pending “Quad” to develop a new strategy to keep the critical searoutes in the Indo-Pacific free of Chinese influence.
Referring to the “Quad” or “quadrilateral coalition”, the US Air ForceChief said there was a natural convergence among the four countries to worktowards preserving the rules-based order, adding cooperation between Indianand US air forces would increase at several levels.
“India is absolutely a central strategic partner in moving forward in ourcommon interests, and where we take this in the future is the purpose of myvisit,” he said.
Mr Goldfein, who has 4,200 flying hours under his belt and flew in the Gulfwar and in Afghanistan, also talked about India’s place as mentioned in therecently unveiled national defence strategy of the US.
“It will be at a number of levels. It is on interoperability, how do welook beyond new platforms and sensors and look more broadly in the longerterm,” he said about cooperation between the US and the Indian air forces.
The visit assumes significance as he was accompanied by TerrenceO’Shaughnessy, Commander of the US Pacific Air Force.
Mr Goldfein did not give a direct reply when asked if the US would increaseits military presence in South China Sea.
“We want to be strategically predictable but operationally unpredictable. Iam not going to share with our adversaries what our intentions are. If infact we are to increase our presence or decrease our presence, that issomething we will do at our time and place of our choosing,” he said.
India, US and several other nations have been pressing for freedom ofnavigation in the disputed South China Sea. The US has been periodicallysending naval ships and planes to assert freedom of navigation, much to thechagrin of China.
The US Air Force Chief said connecting capabilities of the two forces willbe one of the priority areas to enhance interoperability.
Elaborating, he said the focus of the cooperation will be to “make decisionfaster than our adversaries and then act in ways that may bring multipledilemmas at a pace the adversary could never keep up with”.
“I believe that’s going to help us to find deterrence in the 21st century.Being able to produce multiple dilemmas means being able to operatesimultaneously from all domains.
So as we look at our partnership with IAF, the question for me is notperhaps what individual platforms and sensors we can bring but how do webring increasing connectivity, how do we actually connect our capabilitiesin ways that allow us to act, to observe or decide and act faster than ouradversaries.
That is the big idea going forward,” he said.
Mr Goldfein also talked about his and IAF chief Dhanoa’s roles in “combatcampaign” in Kosovo and Kargil in 1999.
“He was leading in the Kargil campaign and I was involved in the Kosovocampaign. He was developing night tactics as a squadron commander and I wasalso developing night tactics as a squadron commander… Who would havethought that the two squadron commanders engaged in combats, buildingsimilar tactics, grow up to be the chiefs of two of the largest and mostprofessional air forces on the planet,” he said.
“Where do we take that. Again we have these relationships built at alllevels, I am excited. There is plenty of opportunities,” he added.
US President Donald Trump, in his first prime-time televised address to thenation as commander-in-chief last year, had laid out his South Asia policysaying a “critical part” of it was to further develop the US’s strategicpartnership with India.
In June 2016, the US had designated India a “Major Defence Partner”intending to elevate defence trade and technology sharing with India to alevel commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners.