'US needs to strengthen ties with India to keep China, Taliban under check': Congressman

The United States needs to strengthen its defence partnership with India to keep China and the Taliban under check, a US Congressman said on Monday. According to Republican lawmaker Mark Green, providing India with needed military equipment to balance against China and the Taliban should be the first step of the US in its bid to strengthen a defence partnership with India. 

Congressman Mark Green in an op-ed in Real Clear Defense wrote, "By helping India upgrade its defense systems, the US can empower India to defend itself and provide security in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific region. This is all the more important since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban."

Encouraging the growing alliance between the US and India since the resurgence of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue in 2017, Green highlighted how India was a crucial partner in Biden's Indo-Pacific strategy. Given that China has been systematically modernising its military over the past two decades and has amassed the largest navy in the region, it was crucial for the US to help India address this new paradigm, he wrote.

“We can do this by concluding the deal with India to purchase 30 armed MQ-9 reaper drones or by helping them expand their fleet of P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft. Instead of placating adversaries like Iran and sending Tehran planes full of cash, we should be investing in relationships with countries that have reciprocated our friendship,” Green wrote in the op-ed.

The Republican lawmaker is a retired US Army Major and represents the seventh Congressional District of Tennessee in the US House of Representatives.

PM Modi-US President Biden's bilateral meet

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held his first face-to-face bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday.  After the meeting, India and the US issued a joint statement stressing on countering global and cross-border terrorism. In the statement, the two countries affirmed that they stand together in the shared fight against terrorism, and will take concerted action against designated terrorist groups. Moreover, a specific emphasis was placed on cross-border terrorism by Pakistan and the need to bring perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks to justice. PM Modi has also extended an invite to the US president and has welcomed him in New Delhi at the earliest mutual convenience. 

(With Agency Inputs)