US preferred Pranab Mukherjee over AK Antony as defence minister

NEW DELHI: The US would have preferred Pranab Mukherjee to continue as the defence minister rather than present incumbent A K Antony, who it believes drags his feet in inking crucial bilateral military pacts and other matters.
Washington, however, can barely contain its glee that New Delhi is increasingly turning to it for arms imports, "frustrated" as India is with Russia for huge delays and price hikes in defence projects.
The latest tranche of US embassy cables, made public by WikiLeaks, make it clear once again that Washington is desperate for New Delhi to import even more American weaponry as well as ink bilateral "foundational agreements" to strongly cement the strategic relationship.
But it gets frustrated by "bureaucratic inertia and recalcitrant officials" in Indian defence and foreign ministries continuing to "complicate attempts to improve the partnership".
US, however, is full of praise for the "uniformed leadership" of Indian armed forces, especially Navy, as well as ministers like Mukherjee, who in June 2005 inked the 10-year Indo-US Defence Framework "within a few hours of his delegation agreeing to a final text".
An October 2008 cable, for instance, holds Mukherjee's involvement in the discussions on the EUM (end-use monitoring) pact "offers an opportunity to deal with a minister who has demonstrated the ability to conclude bilateral agreements without painstaking reviews (unlike Antony or the bureaucrats in both the defence and external affairs ministries)".
The EUM pact, which gives US the right to periodically inspect its defence equipment and technology sold to India, was of course finalized during secretary of state Hillary Clinton's visit to India in July 2009.
In January 2010, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao did assure US ambassador Tim Roemer that, with the communist parties no longer "constraining foreign policy", the "Indian government shared the US perspective and the only issue now was how to educate the naysayers" on the other foundational pacts.
But to this day, with Antony leading the dissenters, India has not inked the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum Agreement (CISMOA) and Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA), much to US dismay despite years of hard-sell.
There have, however, been no full-stops in armament deals, with US notching up sales worth over $8 billion over the last decade and many more contracts in the pipeline.
"For the first time, India can afford (politically and financially) to purchase frontline US equipment," says a January 2010 cable, holding that Indians were "astounded" by US systems and aircraft.
"The near doubling in cost and extensive delays in delivery of Russian aircraft carrier Gorshkov, issues with transfer of technology on T-90 tanks and universal problems with spare parts have convinced even pro-Russian members of Indian government that new sources of supply are needed to balance Russia," it adds.
While all this is certainly true, with India for instance forced to pay $2.33 billion for Gorshkov's refit instead of the earlier $974 million fixed for it, the fact also remains that Russia will remain India's largest defence supplier for the foreseeable future.
India will spend around $35 billion over the next two decades to induct 250 to 300 of the stealth fifth-generation fighters it is going to develop jointly with Russia.