The controversy over U.S. missile defense these days tends to focus on Russia’s increasingly strident objections to proposed U.S. installations in Eastern Europe. But a more volatile situation might be brewing farther east. On Feb. 27, 2008, after two days of meetings in New Delhi, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates quietly announced negotiations between the United States and India to develop a missile defense program on Indian soil. Although still in its early stages, a missile shield on the subcontinent could have long-term implications for U.S.-China relations and regional stability.
Just as proposed U.S. rocket interceptors in Poland stoke tension between the United States and Russia, a U.S.-facilitated missile shield in India could become a flash point for great-power struggles for decades to come. The plans are likely to add to fears in Beijing that the United States is attempting to temper China’s growing influence in Asia. Gates’s trip to New Delhi was part of a tour of three of the region’s democracies—India, Australia, and Indonesia—which could be used to counter China’s regional ambitions if relations with the United States turn frosty. Even more troubling, an Indian missile shield risks triggering a crisis in the nuclear rivalry between India and Pakistan.
The biggest winner? Probably Lockheed Martin. The defense contractor has already entered into talks with the Indian military about selling the country its Patriot missile defense system. “The US has spent billions of dollars” developing the Patriot system, said Lockheed Martin Vice President Dennis Cavin last January. “We reckon that India need not spend so much money on developing its own system when we can help.”
[Photo: Frontier India]
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