According to Manpreet Sethi, NATO has reached out to India to share ballistic missile defense (BMD)
technology. And while India lives in a rough neighborhood, they may not be chomping at the bit:
BMD, therefore, has the potential to upset the deterrence stability in the two nuclear dyads of the region. In fact, the deployment of BMD will impel the adversary toward the development and deployment of countermeasures or advanced offensive capabilities against BMD. This will push the countries into an offence-defence spiral, leading to an arms race not just in earth-based systems, but also in space-based ISR and navigation capabilities as they try to increase the accuracy of their missiles, along with their manoeuvrability, in terminal stages to avoid interception. The automatic tendency, then, will be to develop ASAT capabilities and resort to pre-emption to degrade the space-based assets of the adversary. It therefore appears likely that uncertainties and insecurities will only grow rather than decrease with availability of BMD in all three countries.
As India grapples with finding the best response to its missile threats, the NATO offer to share the ‘technology of discovering and intercepting missiles’ is an interesting development. It comes at a time when the Indian BMD technology trajectory seems to be on an upswing, when the state of Pakistan’s stability is on a downswing, and ambiguities on China’s intentions are on the rise.
and what about Russia reaction????
Russia’s words bear little weight as long as there is no real strength behind them. You can bang your fist or shoe on the table if you like, giving vent to your fair indignation. You will be patted on the head and given a sweet but, in practical terms, your position and opinions will not be taken into account. So we should react by making India an offer it cannot refuse. More specifically, Russia should show its potential as India’s vital strategic, military and technical partner in creating India’s national air and missile defence systems, including transfer of the relevant systems and equipment (tracking radars and space surveillance systems) as part of the military and technical cooperation between the two countries.
In this case, Russia will transfer all such equipment to India’s national military command. I think this proposal would be quite effective in keeping NATO away from what is not its obvious sphere of interests.
