The raging debate about the end-user monitoring agreement (EUMA) that India has signed with the US, is largely misplaced and unnecessary. The critics of the EUMA allege that India has compromised on its sovereignty by signing an ?intrusive? agreement with the US. For the US, on the other hand, it is simply a matter of enforcing the law of its land?all weapons/weapons systems sold by the US to foreign countries are accompanied by certain conditionalities?inspection, ban on resale, ban on adapting the technology locally, specifying and not deviating from the declared use of a weapon, servicing by US manufacturers only being some of the key features of an EUMA. India is not unique in having to adhere to these conditions?50-odd countries already do so. In fact, even in India, we have been doing so on a case-by-case basis?now it will simply be a general principle. Many critics are enraged by the right of physical inspection of the weaponry sold to India. On this point, India has actually extracted a significant concession?we retain the right to choose the time and place of inspection and the US inspectors will need to take permission before they can inspect. That seems reasonable enough. Of course, this is not to deny that we will not have complete freedom but then that?s a price we have to pay for buying weapons from the US.
That said, there is no compulsion that we buy weapons only from the US. If anything, in the foreseeable future, most of our defence purchases will still come from Russia, France and Israel, where there will be no such end user agreements. However, there is no doubting the fact that increasingly the best and most modern systems of defence are being developed and manufactured in the US. The US spends more than half the world?s total expenditure on defence and an even bigger proportion on defence R&D. Western Europe is far behind, and is in fact working in collaboration with the US quite often. Russia has steadily lost the capacity to invest in R&D. So, if we are serious about upgrading our defence forces to the best global standards, we will have to look increasingly towards the US to purchase equipment. The US is hardly going to change its laws for a single country. If we refuse to accept its law, then other countries and rivals like China and Pakistan will, and in the process overtake us on defence technologies. Our own indigenous defence R&D has been a failure, so that is not an option. Given our limited choices, we can hardly quibble over exalted notions of sovereignty.
