USA : INFLUENCE & POIDS INDUS EN MATIERE DE DEFENSE

New Delhi: Is the Indian government under pressure from the United States to cancel its defence deals with European companies and purchase defence equipment from American firms?

The question is being raised after Defence Minister AK Antony recently struck down a $1.6 billion order bagged by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) for supplying the Airbus transport planes to the Indian Air Force (IAF).

This is yet another order that has been "legitimately won" by a European defence company last year, with the IAF selecting the multi-role tanker-transport Airbus A330 after negotiating with companies for four years. But the deal was arbitrarily cancelled by Antony without giving any reason.

Last year, India concluded a deal with Eurocopter - a French- German conglomeration -for buying 197 helicopters, which was also cancelled by Antony.
The Defence Ministry gave a very "shadowy" financial argument to explain why.

Boeing's P81 Poseidon reconnaissance aircrafts were preferred over the Airbus in another deal.

Another decision to award a large tender for "secure defence communication" equipment to Motorola - an American firm - instead of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), is also mired in "red tape and secrecy", with the Defence Ministry failing to provide any plausible explanation for "dumping the winner" and preferring the US company instead.

The IAF officials who laboured for four years to finally pick up Airbus A330 are disturbed over the defence minister's striking down of the contract as their efforts, energy and money had all gone to waste.

Defence analysts say there may not be a great conspiracy, but there is certainly something wrong in the way the Defence Ministry is cancelling deals with European companies despite of their winning the tenders and fulfilling the quality requirements of the Indian forces. They pointed out that finalized transactions between sovereign nations do not "just get cancelled".

The question being raised at the moment is whether the Manmohan Singh-government is succumbing to the continued US pressure, or are there some "shadowy agents" who are influencing the government's decisions.
Analysts say Antony cannot be blamed for cancelling the concluded deals, as he must be acting only on the advice of higher-ranked Defence Ministry officials.

Analysts point out that unlike the US, the European firms had always agreed to the complete transfer of technology of the latest weaponry, and that too with no strings attached. Hence, the denial of opportunity to them is astounding.

Is it because the US helped India get into the nuclear nations' family after over two decades of isolation that US companies are being preferred?

Since the signing of the civilian nuclear deal, the US are sitting pretty on actual and potential defence orders worth 10bn dollars from India.

Originally published by Daily Times website, Lahore, in English 21 Feb 10.

(c) 2010 BBC Monitoring South Asia. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

WASHINGTON, 24 février (Reuters) -

La Chine a remis à plus tard plusieurs échanges de haut niveau entre responsables militaires américains et chinois depuis que Washington a provoqué la fureur de Pékin en annonçant des ventes d'armes à Taiwan, ont rapporté mardi les autorités américaines.

Le Pentagone s'emploie à dissiper les tensions nées de ces ventes d'armes, et considère que la riposte de Pékin est d'une ampleur limitée.
Le secrétaire américain à la Défense, Robert Gates, a dit à cet égard qu'il comptait toujours se rendre en Chine cette année.

La Chine, de son côté, a remis à plus tard la visite aux Etats-Unis de son chef d'état-major, ainsi que celle d'un de ses commandants militaires régionaux, ont dit des responsables du Pentagone concernant les mesures de représailles prises par Pékin.

Une visite en Chine du chef du commandant des forces américaines du Pacifique a elle aussi été reportée.

Il s'agit de reports et, comme l'a noté un responsable au Pentagone, "Rien n'a été officiellement annulé".

(Adam Entous, version française Eric Faye)

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Nils a écrit:Et bien-sûr, il faudra parler du Pakistan, aussi.

Sevrien a écrit: (i) Confirmation de la commande des moteurs RR Trent XWB pour la commande des A350-XWB de China Airlines (Taiwan). RR "in", et GE "out", après le scandale idiot et embarrassant pour la Cie., les USA et Taiwan (ce qui fait beaucoup), des GE pour la dernière cde. d'A330 ! Même les Américains ne veulent plus de ces histoires-là, ... surtout pour des GE CF-6, sous la loupe des FAA et NTSB (ce qui fait beaucoup, aussi) !

(ii) Belle synthèse de la réussite du RR Trent XWB (et, implicitement, des A350-XWB) ! Toujours pas d'accord Airbus / GE (Safran-SNECMA) en vue ?

China Airlines signs for Trent XWBs and TotalCare 22 January 2008

Rolls-Royce and Taiwan’s China Airlines have signed a contract for Trent XWB engines to power a fleet of 14 firm and 6 option Airbus A350 XWB twinjets. The potential value of the business, which includes a long-term TotalCare services agreement, is US$1.3 billion at engine list prices. Deliveries begin in 2015.

Selection of the engines was announced in December 2007 following the signing of a Letter of Intent between the airline and Airbus. It is the first time Rolls-Royce has been chosen as an engine supplier by China Airlines and marks the debut of the Trent series in Taiwan. ]/quote]
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Oui ! Peut-être le début de la fin de la magouille politique dans le choix des moteurs et avions civils dans cette zone du globe ? Sans doute, ne faut-il pas rêver ! Mais cela marque bien la fin de l'influence indue de l'inénarrable John DOUGLASS, .... bien en retraite, .....& retrait !