Just back from a trip to India, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said the visit showed him the two armies are more alike than different.
“One thing I realized was how much we have in common,” Odierno said yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute’s Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies. “We can learn from each other.” Not only are the United States and India the two largest democracies in the world, but they have two very professional organizations in their armies.
While Odierno spoke of future engagement and the way ahead, he said he also visited India’s Northern Command–the most important, he said. There, he met with the staff and commanders who are responsible for India’s borders with Pakistan and China. There, Indian troops have faced incursions, terrorists, bombings and other problems in Kashmir and a recent incursion by China.
“What really caught me was the fact that what they’ve been doing for the past 20 years we’ve been doing for the past 12 years,” Odierno said.
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| Army Gen. Raymond Odierno Indian Army Gen. Bikram Singh |
There’s a lot of knowledge and lessons learned that can be shared, a lot of common ground, he said. Military to military contact can help share information, professional development and how future leaders are developed, as well as techniques for dealing with potential future problems.
Northern Command headquarters recently issued a request for proposals to buy six border surveillance management systems that can be used day and night, according to published reports.
That move would beef up the existing border security systems in light of recent increased attempts at infiltration across the Line of Control dividing the former princely state under Indian control known as the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The two parts of that former state under Pakistani control are known as Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton called the Line of Control in Kashmir the most dangerous place in the world.
Another cease fire line separates Jammu and Kashmir from the Chinese controlled Aksai Chin.
The trip earlier this month was Odierno’ s second visit to India and the first as Army Chief of Staff visiting his counterpart. The first trip was half a decade ago when he was military adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. At the time, Rice said India was emerging not just as a regional, but as a global power.
Additionally, Odierno pointed out as he has in the past, that as it is in many Asian-Pacific nations, in India, the army is the dominant service, the largest service and most influential.
“It’s important for us to build army-to-army relations as we continue to rebalance,” he said. The U.S. Army has some 80,000 soldiers assigned to U.S. Pacific Command, in support of Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear, PACOM commander. Some of those soldiers now are taking part in exercise 2013 Talisman Saber, a biennial combined Australian and U.S. training activity running July 15 to Aug. 5. Such an exercise aides bilateral relations, helps develop capabilities, and provides assured access.