‘New Delhi has pulled off a miracle’: India, US deepen defence ties

Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official, heralded these deals as a watershed moment, indicating that the US is finally translating its rhetoric into tangible support for India. “The question now is how the US will build upon this agreement,” he said, hinting at the potential for further collaboration. “Negotiating the first agreement is always the hardest; the second, third, and fourth come easier.”

The SOSA, a non-binding bilateral pact, commits both countries to prioritise support for defence-related goods and services. The agreement aims to ensure access to vital industrial resources and address supply chain vulnerabilities critical to national security. The US Department of Defence said India would receive assurances under Washington’s Defence Priorities and Allocations System in return for Indian companies providing priority support to the US.

Rubin, a senior fellow at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute think tank, noted India’s urgent need for reliable alternatives to Russian military supplies, particularly in aircraft engines and missile systems. “The thing to watch would be if top-tier systems enter into the negotiations,” he said, suggesting that traditional US concerns about India’s ties with Russia were diminishing.

“The fact that this agreement has met with no congressional resistance shows that New Delhi has pulled off a miracle: achieving consensus in Washington,” he said, emphasising that the US is increasingly betting on India while the influence of the Pakistan lobby wanes.

Richard Rossow, a senior adviser at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank, highlighted the potential implications of the pact. “If either of our nations ended up on the precipice,