EU's defence partnership has lessons for India

My article EU's defence partnership has lessons for India appeared in Mail Today/DailyO.
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New Delhi must find strategic partners to prepare for tomorrow.

One man, Jean Monnet, has been central to the creation of the European Union. He had the vision to propose certain basic principles which became the bedrock of the multi-national institution. At the end of World War II, as Europe was going through one of the most traumatic periods, he created the "circumstances" under which a successful partnership could take shape.
The first principle on which Monnet worked was: Any association, partnership or union should be built among equals. Though at the end of World War II, Germany was the loser, from the first days of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), France and its neighbour acted as equals. This principle remained to date.

Principle
Another principle set by Monnet and his colleagues is that the association should be voluntary. In the summer of 1950, Monnet thought of an organised European defence on a supranational basis; he presented his proposal to René Pleven, the French Prime Minister. Pleven proposed to his European partners the plan to constitute a European army of 100,000 men (including German soldiers) which would operate under a European minister for defence, endowed with a common budget and placed under the supreme command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
In 1954, the European partners failed to agree to the European Defence Community (EDC); the loss of the national "independence" was probably a step too far, too early.
It would have been a first if independent states had agreed to create a supranational authority to which part of their national sovereignty was delegated. It had worked for the ECSC in 1951; and with the Treaty of Rome in 1957, it had gone a step further with the creation of supranational European institutions like the European Economic Community and the European Community for Atomic Energy; however, Europeans nations were not yet ready to trust their partners for their own defence.
Sixty-three years later, most of the EU states have agreed to create "the nucleus of a joint army". On November 13, 23 out of 28 EU member states signed a declaration in Brussels, which will become legally binding at an EU summit next month. Britain (which has historically opposed the EDC), Denmark, Ireland, Malta, and Portugal did not sign.
The EU’s foreign relations commissioner, Federica Mogherini, spoke of an "emotional moment"; she said that the move will help "dismantle the ghosts of the past" and demonstrate that "the taboo concerning EU defence could be broken". She added: “This could be an inspiration for other areas of EU integration.”
For those who have followed the European integration with its ups and downs, it is an elating moment, though it did not make the first pages of the world media. It is indeed revolutionary. According to the new agreement, the European nations will jointly manage a rapid reaction force and jointly develop new equipment. A single European logistics and medical support hub will be created. The participants will be bound to increase defence funds for R&D. A single hub for overseas military training missions will also be set up.
Some see this development as a reaction to an inward turn of the United States under President Donald Trump, but also the instability at Europe’s gates as well as the increasing number of Islamist terrorist attacks.

Project
The final project is less ambitious than some EU states, such as France and Italy, had wanted; but it is a promising beginning. Mogherini explained the rationale behind the move in simple words: “The world is changing.” Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO boss, meanwhile, considered the project "good for Europe and good for NATO".
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose visit to India has been postponed for a couple of months, in September, called for a "profound transformation" of the EU, requiring “deeper political integration to win back the support of disgruntled citizens.” He even suggested blocs moving forward at differing speeds which may help the UK to “one day find its place again”. Macron pleaded for the EU to return to its founders’ "visionary" ideas, “born out of the disaster of two World Wars”.

Collaboration
This comes at a time when Airbus Defence and Space (DS), itself the outcome of a close European collaboration, announced the concept of a new fifth-generation fighter plane which could replace the Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault’s Rafale in the 2040s. Antoine Noguier, DS’s strategy head, affirmed: “Germany and France have taken the decision to develop a new combat aircraft to maintain sovereign and European capabilities.”
Florence Parly, the French minister of armed forces, who was recently in Delhi, commented on the European structure: “What France wished, it is the possibility to develop a strategic structure, common to all the States, which would have the capacity to intervene in extremely rapid conditions.”
In other words, joint operations.
A less ambitious German project ultimately prevailed. “Structured and permanent cooperation, as inclusive as possible”, it will have more chance to succeed.
The creation of the new European defence structure is a ground-breaking move, not only in terms of European defence, but also in the field of research and development. We could tomorrow see a new European aircraft carrier, new European drones or a breakthrough in quantum communication.
The French say, "l’Union fait la force" (union makes you strong). India should watch the happenings in Europe and definitively learn from it in terms of collaboration. The time has come for Delhi to find reliable strategic partners to prepare for tomorrow.

China is ready

According to The China Daily, many border areas in China have deployed “an integrated frontier monitoring system consisting of advanced radars and unmanned aircraft”.
Mao Weichen, a spokesperson of the Southwestern Institute of Technology and Physics in Chengdu, told the Chinese press: “Our system has been adopted by border defense units in Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan and many other regions to curb illegal border crossings and drug trafficking. …Users also include some airports and military bases.”
The institute is a branch of China North Industries Group Corp, China's main manufacturer of land weapons.
Mao asserted that the new system integrates electro-optical devices, radars, communications equipment, command-and-control instruments and tools for image analysis.
The Institute in Chengdu has closely worked with border patrols, which are said to be able now to perform round-the-clock, all-weather surveillance of ‘illegal cross-border movements’.
The announcement probably addresses the Indian paramilitary personnel guarding the LAC in Ladakh and the McMahon Line in Arunachal.
It will also help China to keep a watch on the Tibetans wanting to take refuge in India via Nepal.
Mao affirmed that “people trying to cross the border will be detected by the system, which then automatically notifies the border guards.”
He added that the same system, equipped with sea-scanning radar can also be used for guarding the coasts of China.
It was explained that “Compared with traditional border monitoring networks that mainly depend on video surveillance, our system has a wider coverage and more deterrence thanks to the use of drones and acoustic weapons.”
A few weeks ago, Xinhua reported “recent years have seen a surge in China in cross-border crimes, especially illegal crossings and drug trafficking.”
Border defense units in Xinjiang, Guangdong and Heilongjiang have for several years been using frontier monitoring systems, such closed-circuit televisions which had very limited detection capabilities.
As the Ladakh/Aksai Chin border comes under of the Xinjiang Military District of Lanzhou Military Area Command, it probably means that the new system will be used (or is already used) on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The China Daily quoted an unnamed ‘border defense expert working in Beijing’, who said: “Given that cross-border crimes are frequent, it no longer works to depend on our soldiers to patrol and catch the bad guys on foot. Therefore the border defense authorities are turning their eyes on high-tech apparatus.”

India always behind
In the meantime, India always far behind, is trying to strengthen its borders with China, particularly in Ladakh. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) would like to deploy some additional 6,000 personnel along the LAC.
Today, the ITBP Force is responsible for the 3,488 km border with China from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.
A government source said that the ITBP has moved a proposal for deployment of six battalions to plug the gaps along the LAC.
While the Indian side ‘moves proposals’, the Chinese acts.
With the proposal under Home Ministry's 'active' consideration, it is hoped that the ITBP may be able to raise eight additional battalions (about 8,000 personnel), which would “enable rest and recuperation of its men after working in harsh weather conditions on the icy frontier. “
The question is: why can’t the ‘sensitive’ border be guarded by the Indian Army?
Further why should an ITBP jawan spends 20 per cent on guard duties of VVIPs?
Why can't other forces provide security for the VVIPs?
Regarding the ITBP, Lt Gen J.S. Bajwa, the Editor of The Indian Defence Review has put on record some interesting points:

• ITBP does not have its own integral intelligence setup so essential in an operational situation.
• The Army has a comprehensive intelligence setup and has wherewithal for intelligence gathering and substantial surveillance resources.
• ITBP communications are based, primarily, on High Frequency radio, which is most vulnerable to interception and being jammed when required particularly in an operational situation.
• The Army has a secure radio and static line communication network with adequate redundancies built-in for exercising optimal operational command and control.
• Inter-communication between Army and ITBP is adhoc and is mainly provided from Army resources. ITBP’s integral radio equipment is incompatible with equipment currently in use by the Army.
• Given the nature of the high altitude of the region there is frequent movement of such personnel making the whole exercise temporary and fragmented.
• The Chinese Border Defence Units deployed and garrisoned along the entire LAC are directly under the PLA, which is surely not mere ‘policing’ duties.
• With a Police force deployed on the LAC, the Chinese will interpret it as a tacit acceptance of the Indian Government that the LAC is not a ‘LIVE’ border that needs to be guarded by military forces. A benign approach to the whole India-China Boundary question.

Lt Gen Bajwa offers some interesting suggestions, though it is doubtful if the authorities are ready to listen. He says: “place all ITBP forces deployed along the LAC under the Army for operational control.”
In the meantime: “Induction of new equipment into the Force, should as a policy, be cleared by the Army from the technical and logistic compatibility point of view.”
The crux of the problem, according to the Editor of The Indian Defence Review is: “MHA’s reluctance to place the ITBP under the Army is indicative of the underlying resistance of the IPS lobby to serve under any commander from the Army. IPS as seen from the factual ground realities considers itself as an 'administrative cadre' akin to IAS. They loathe the notion of leading from the front as field commanders.”
This may not change soon.

New cameras for the ITBP?
After writing the above post, I came across an article in The Daily Excelsior, the largest newspaper published in J&K.
It says: "Though peace prevailed between Sino-Indian troops along the LAC in Ladakh sector with both Armies holding regular interactions at Border Meeting Points (BMPs), India has decided to go ahead with installation of latest gadgetry along the LAC to monitor movement of the Chinese troops from its side."
The Ministries of Home Affairs and Defence suddenly realized the "failure of previous such system to work up to the expectations of Army and ITBP, which guards the LAC along the China border."
According to the The Excelsior "the MHA and MoD have decided to go ahead with their proposal for installation of high resolution sophisticated cameras to keep surveillance on the PLA activities on its own side."
An Army source told the Jammu-based newspaper: “The Defence experts would first work on surveillance cameras before their installation about 20 kilometers inside the Indian territory to ensure that the system doesn’t fail like the previous one, which hadn’t come up to expectations of the ITBP as it failed to gave proper and adequate view of the activities across the LAC.”
The Excelsior adds: "It was in this context especially after Despang incursions that the ITBP had decided to install sophisticated cameras to monitor movement of the PLA on the Indian side. However, this system has not worked and, therefore, the MHA and MoD have decided to go ahead with the new system of installing very high resolution surveillance cameras to ensure that they give adequate picture of the LAC, where the troops and the ITBP personnel can’t monitor or patrol regularly."
The fact remains that China is still several stages in front especially with the new drones and the newly-installed sophisticated equipments reported in The China Daily.

The Chinese are ready for any eventuality.
Have a look at these pictures of the Chinese border forces (PLA) exercising in the Kunlun Mountains, probably not far from Ladakh.