WASHINGTON: The US Senate has not endorsed an amendment that would have recognised India as a “strategic defence partner”.

The amendment was atta­ched to the US National Defe­n­ce Authorisation Act (NDAA) for the next fiscal year, which the Senate approved earlier this week. While the act got a thumping bipartisan approval vote of 85-13, the proposed amendment did not pass.

The US House of Repre­sen­tatives approved the NDAA 2017 B on May 21, prior to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US last week.

Had it been approved, the amendment would have put India on a par with America’s Nato allies and would have enhanced defence trade, including transfer of technology, between the two countries.

But a joint statement issued after Mr Modi’s visit did mention India as a “major defence partner”.

The amendment would have also supported combined military planning to counter piracy, assist in providing humanitarian relief and build maritime domain awareness.

One provision “encouraged” the US president to coordinate with the government of India on an ongoing basis — to develop and keep updated military contingency plans for addressing threats to the mutual security interests of both countries.

Another required the president to carry out — on an ongoing basis — an assessment of the extent to which India possessed capabilities to execute military operations of mutual interest with the United States.

Senator John McCain, who moved the bill, regretted in a statement that “the Senate was unable to debate and vote on several matters critical to our national security, many of which enjoyed broad bipartisan support”.

The McCain amendment, as a report called it, noted that two decades of Indo-US relationship had turned into a “globally strategic and defence partnership” based on shared democratic values, greater economic cooperation, regional stability, security and peace.

The bill would have allowed the US to designate an official, who would be focusing on US-India defence cooperation, assisting in the transfer of defence technology.

It would also have allowed the US government to maintain a special office in the Pentagon devoted to US-India Defence Technology and Trade Initiative.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2016