India-US relations: News and Discussions IV

[uddu]

^^^India must have threatened about putting more conditions in the trade deal or even arming U.S neighbour's including the likes of Venezuela with modern weapons like Astra and Brahmos.

[Cyrano]

^^^ unlikely. The sale of missiles to Pakis story was either planted as a pressure tactic on Bharat for the ongoing negotiations, or it is yet another TACO moment.

[chetak]

The US can always flip flop, especially if they want control of bagram.

Cyrano ji,

The afghans and the pakis have a blood feud and the taliban are especially not paki friendly

Plus, the afghans do not recognise the durand line

But no matter who has been in power in afghanistan, its government has maintained that the durand line is void.

afghanistan continues to seek the return of pashtun territories as well as balochistan, which would provide it with access to the arabian Sea.

if any paki jernail/govt pushes for access to bagram for the amrikis, the paki leader(s) will end up in a wooden box

BTW, bagram was built by the soviets, and not by the amrikis, so trump saying that he is going to take it back is dishonest, to say the least.

[chetak]

^^^ unlikely. The sale of missiles to Pakis story was either planted as a pressure tactic on Bharat for the ongoing negotiations, or it is yet another TACO moment.

It was a paki plant, Cyrano ji.

[Cyrano]

Chetak garu,
Agree mostly. What historic or ethnic claim do Afghans have on Balochistan? I'm not well versed in this matter, my vague GK tells me they are as different as chalk and cheese. If anything, Balochs would prefer to be a part of Bharat than get gobbled up by Afghanis/Talibunnies.

[uddu]

https://x.com/MeghUpdates/status/1976538640047362434
@MeghUpdates
KEY India–US developments in the last 24 hours:

— PM Modi & President Trump discuss trade negotiations & the Gaza peace plan
— India welcomes Phase 1 implementation of Gaza plan
— US clarifies: No new AMRAAM missiles to Pakistan, only spares
— US officials visiting India

[A_Gupta]

Looks like Paki plant, not US plant, based on this DoW page:
https://www.war.gov/News/Contracts/Cont ... e/4319114/

Sorry, this page, if we go by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh (May 7 2025 contracts)
https://www.war.gov/News/Contracts/Cont ... e/4177700/

AMRAAM missile are $1+ million each. $41.7 million doesn’t buy much.

https://www.war.gov/News/Contracts/Cont ... e/4189244/
May 16

Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., McLean, Virginia, was awarded a $20,595,168 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost-reimbursable incentive contract for technical security team support services. This contract provides for program management, end use monitoring, technology security support, food services support, and facilities management support. Work will be performed in Pakistan and is expected to be completed by May 2026. This contract involves Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Pakistan. This contract was a sole source acquisition under the authority of Unusual and Compelling Urgency. FMS funds in the amount of $20,595,168 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Security and Assistance Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8630-25-C-B014).

——
For support for the repair of Pak facilities hit in Op Sindoor?

[chetak]

Chetak garu,
Agree mostly. What historic or ethnic claim do Afghans have on Balochistan? I'm not well versed in this matter, my vague GK tells me they are as different as chalk and cheese. If anything, Balochs would prefer to be a part of Bharat than get gobbled up by Afghanis/Talibunnies.

Cyrano ji,


here you go.


The Durand Line is the 2,640-kilometer (1,640-mile) international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, established in 1893 by British civil servant Sir Henry Mortimer Durand and Afghan ruler Abdur Rahman Khan. While internationally recognized as the border by Pakistan and the world community, the line is not accepted by Afghanistan, as it was signed under pressure and divides Pashtun and Baloch ethnic homelands. The agreement was a product of the 19th century Great Game between the British and Russian empires and was intended to fix spheres of influence.

Key Points
Established in the Hindu Kush in 1893, it runs through the tribal lands between Afghanistan and British India. In modern times it has marked the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It is a legacy of the 19th century Great Game between the Russian and British empires in which Afghanistan was used as a buffer by the British against a feared Russian expansionism to its east.
The agreement demarcating what became known as the Durand Line was signed between the British civil servant Sir Henry Mortimer Durand and Amir Abdur Rahman, then the Afghan ruler in 1893.
Abdur Rahman became king in 1880, two years after the end of the Second Afghan War in which the British took control of several areas that were part of the Afghan kingdom. His agreement with Durand demarcated the limits of his and British India’s “spheres of influence” on the Afghan “frontier” with India.
The seven-clause agreement recognised a 2,670-km line, which stretches from the border with China to Afghanistan’s border with Iran.
It also put on the British side the strategic Khyber Pass.
It is a mountain pass in the Hindu Kush, on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The pass was for long of great commercial and strategic importance, the route by which successive invaders entered India, and was garrisoned by the British intermittently between 1839 and 1947.
The line cut through Pashtun tribal areas, leaving villages, families, and land divided between the two “spheres of influence”.
With independence in 1947, Pakistan inherited the Durand Line, and with it also the Pashtun rejection of the line, and Afghanistan’s refusal to recognise it.
When the Taliban seized power in Kabul the first time, they rejected the Durand Line. They also strengthened Pashtun identity with an Islamic radicalism to produce the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, whose terrorist attacks since 2007 left the country shaken.


Durand’s Curse: A Line Across the Pathan Heart Hardcover – 18 September 2017
by Rajiv Dogra



https://www.amazon.in/Durands-Curse-Acr ... 8641&psc=1

[KLNMurthy]

I would like to see a much more aggressive and calculated Indian role in the larger, non-EuroAmerican world.

Military collaborations with Nigeria etc to put down islamists, educational & medical support for backward communities in the US, deep involvement in Indian-origin Caribbean and pacific countries etc. To name only a few opportunities off the top of my head.

No argument, but how to justify scaling up when several percent of Indians are still in multi-dimensional poverty?

Here is a summary of what India does do:
https://orfamerica.org/newresearch/indi ... priorities

…

And so on. I leave you to read the ORF paper and point out where India has been not-so-efficient or not-generous-enough.

No argument that GoI has been doing a lot. Just saying, do more of the same, quantitatively, is pointless. The numbers are what they are.

My issue is with the structure and intent of these initiatives. There is a difference between giving aid & support and getting some kind of organic benefit from it (like warm words at UN, general goodwill etc) versus having some concrete and more-or-less measurable expectations of what we should get for it. Business share is an obvious one. Others could be share in education & healthcare, relationships with powerful and influential people in society, military etc. All with expansionist intent—improve the numbers steadily.

It is unclear whether these initiatives are coordinated with profit making and nonprofit private initiatives, for example. They could provide the resources and energy and the GoI could be backing them with its influence, hard power etc as appropriate.

For all I know, things may already be happening in this manner. But from what I can see, they are not; we are making friends, giving government-level aid, but largely leaving the other countries alone, and not getting too involved.

Indian tentacles—benign of course—should be everywhere.

[A_Gupta]

A benign way of doing it would be that any Indian company that won a competitive bid abroad can apply to the Indian government for concessional financing that will be awarded based on the Indian government's assessment of its value to Indian strategic objectives. Likewise any foreign project in some list of countries that will use more than X% of Indian supplies - goods, services or labor - can apply to the Indian government for help with financing.

Of course, this will require the the GoI be objective in assessing the viability and value of the project and not corruptible. Further, there should be no guarantee or even expectation before the project bid is made that there will be financial help. IMO, this is a very essential part of keeping it benign rather than imperialist or anything else.