by India has signed very important SOSA agreements recently, about which we are going to talk.
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Now first of all I would like to add that USA and other western countries, whether you count Canada, UK or various countries, are very happy that PM Modi has finally gone to meet Zelensky after hugging Putin. The American media is extensively covering this visit to Ukraine.
CNN, BBC etc. are all covering this and BBC is UK’s media. BBC asked Jaishankar Sahab a very strange question about this visit.
The BBC journalist asked that Modi ji is fine, he is going to meet Zelensky, it is a good thing, but why did he hug Putin at all. That scene was so strange that why did this happen after hugging Putin.
So Jaishankar Sahab has given this answer to the western media regarding your question. You know in our part of the world, neither people meet people, they are given to embracing each other.
It may not be a part of our culture. But you are part of us, so in fact today I am tired of the Prime Minister also embracing the President and on my part I do it with number of other leaders in number of other places, so I think purposely we have slightly cultural gap here in terms of what these challenges mean.
Here Jaishankar Sahab has given a very clear answer to the western media that those who are very angry or upset as to why PM Modi hugged Vladimir Putin, understand that this is part of our culture, hugging is common in our country, when people meet, it does not mean that we are embracing you etc.
You understand that cultural aspect is very important here, so look, we have kept our stance, we have not said anywhere that we regret the meeting with Vladimir Putin, it should not have happened, it is very important to keep our stance.
Even two, I would say here that India and US have recently We have signed two very important agreements. And now there is a possibility that both the countries will sign RDPs very soon.
Now before telling you which are these agreements, let me tell you that our country’s Prime Minister is in Ukraine today.
At the same time, our country’s Defense Minister has gone to the USA and has gone on a long visit. He will be in the US for four days.
And the agreement that we have been hearing about since 2022, the SOSA Agreement, whose full form is Securities of Supply Arrangement Agreement, has now finally been signed.
This is a very critical agreement through which both India and the US can support each other’s national security and defense in difficult times.
India Become 18th Country !
And look, the USA has signed this SOSA Agreement with very few countries, there are only 18 countries in total with whom the USA has signed this agreement. You must note that you will not see Pakistan here.
There are very limited number of countries like Australia, Canada, Denmark. Estonia, Italy, Japan, Latia, Lithuania, by the way, these countries are Lithuania, you will find these three countries very close to the Russian border.
This is the reason for including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania here. This is the main reason for signing the SOSA agreement with them.
Under SOSA, US can send whatever items, goods, services are required for the national defence of a country on a very urgent basis on a fast basis, leaving behind all bureaucracy etc., in a very fast track manner.
Although I have to tell these countries that SAUSA is non-binding, it is not as if the US is bound by an agreement that they have to deliver all these things very fast for the national defense of a country.
But at least I will say here that when India is in crisis, suppose God forbid, but suppose tomorrow China attacks India, you will literally say that it is a time of crisis, China is making an aggression suddenly, we need a lot of defense hardware, defense equipment, we need good attack helicopters, we need Javelin missiles, we need a lot of things from the USA so that we can stop the Chinese forces.
In that particular case, if you assume that it is a surprise attack by China, let us talk to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, to give us our supplies, we have to save our country.
Now they reply, hey look, we have received a lot of orders from all over the world, you know that our defense hardware is very popular, right now Philippines has ordered some, there are some orders from Japan, how can we get your number right now, we will do everything here.
SOSA will ensure that in times of crisis, the US provides all the supplies to India quickly and the US government itself will help the American companies so that whatever India needs, whether it is a service or an item, India gets it readily.
If China Attacks India, Will SOSA Agreement helpful ?
And remember, we depend a lot on the US in terms of defense. Suppose tomorrow a war starts with China, obviously the manufacturing of Tejas fighter jets will start at a very high speed. We will try to get many more fighter jets ready as quickly as possible because we do not know how long this war will last.
If you see, the war between Russia and Ukraine has been going on for two and a half years. What will we do in that case?
So, under the SOSA agreement, the engine that we use for the Tejas fighter jet will also be provided to India at a very fast speed and the second agreement here is the Reciprocal Defense Procurement Agreement.
This See the agreement makes SOSA binding. As I told you SOSA is not binding but if we sign it with the US, then here a binding obligation comes on the American companies that once they join India, whether they open production or do sourcing or do anything on a large scale, India should get defense hardware in difficult times.
So see, these are very unique types of contracts. For a long time it was not known whether these agreements would be signed or not but as we can see, before Biden goes, he is signing a lot of pending work.
Recently, as I told you in a video that the change that the US has made in its nuclear policy was also approved by Biden.
Apart from that, now this SOSA agreement, RDP, we will most likely sign it. For now, SOSA has signed it and the US is moving ahead on these also in a very fast track manner.
Now, here you must have understood that the countries close to Russia, such as here you are looking at Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, all these countries, even if you look at Israel, these are all countries that can face a conflict in one go and under the SOSA agreement, the US will always give top priority to these countries, right?
The problem is, look, here comes the problem of this agreement that okay, USA signs this agreement with India, suppose China shows aggression on India, at a time when Russia shows aggression on Finland, then how will the supplies distributor chances under the US SOSA agreement come under a lot of pressure.
So this is the question, I would say it is a weakness of the US, according to me, I mean this is just my opinion, the US should have signed this agreement with very limited countries, 18, look, this is a bit too much number for such an agreement, although 18 countries are very less, but for this type of agreement, they have added many countries here, like Republic of Korea, South Korea, tomorrow North Korea, etc. In that case also, the US will be activated.
We have signed this agreement but in the end, if any difficulty arises, we will have to depend the most on ourselves.
We can not assume on the basis of this agreement that in a difficult situation, the US will always provide us with services and goods for national defence, whatever items we need.
