Posted on 01/15/2005 11:26:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
India and America enter into new Open Skies agreement that will allow private airlines of India to fly to US bringing travel price down rapidly
India and US signed a historic open sky agreement that will have remarkable impact on civil aviation between the two countries. US Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel negotiated the Open Skies aviation pact.
This pact replaces a fifty-year-old pact and according to US officials will create many aviation jobs in both India and America.
Open Skies agreement provides freedom to the airlines of both the countries from all restrictions on how they often they fly, the size of aircraft they use and price they charge between and beyond others’ territory.
United States has already signed such agreements with 60 other countries. For India this is the first one.
At this time India-America market is served by Air India, Delta and Northwest.
India and America will assign the flying rights to multiple carriers in their respective countries.
India’s emerging economy is experiencing new low cost airlines that are slashing price heavily. This new agreement will pave way for India’s new private airlines to start flying to America and back. American market with expatriates and business travelers are the most lucrative market. With India’s private aviation industry bidding an entry in this market, prices can come down by 50 to 60%.
Seems that India is slowly realizing that their future does not rest with Moscow, and all those years cozying up to the Kremlin were wasted.
They probably noticed that Moscow was financing the Muslims causing all the horror in India's border disputes with Pakistan.
Of course, I'm sure the lucrative outsourcing contracts with American businesses didn't hurt either.
Anyone else notice how D.C.'s baiting and bribing of India might be related to a containment policy for China?
I think Bush's foreign policy is geared toward Chinese containment, and I'm waiting for the follow up in our economic policy toward China that will force China to conform to their agreements with us or risk their trade status.
Yea true. But many in India don't see America's cosying up with Pak in good light. Yea we understand that US needs Pak to hunt Al-Queda and Taliban, the same Taliban that the Pak Army and ISI created, but P3C's and F-16's won't be used in hunting Al-Queda or Taliban.
They still want nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, strategic bombers, submarine launched ballistic missile technology and anti-ship missiles etc. They won't get any of that from the US.
The Pakistanis have used their F-16s to bomb terrorist strong holds in Pakistan itself. They had a major push supported by US intel in the Wana region only recently. The AH-1 Cobras supplied also had a field day with the stronholds. The P-3s can be used in the overland role. The US use them extensively over Iraq and Afghanistan to pin point and direct other entities onto enemy positions.
Russia still remains important for India,if not more important than the US when it comes to arms purchases.There is still a lack of mutual trust between New Delhi & Washington on numerous issues.If you've forgotten, US-Russia ties have also got progressively better since the Cold War,so I don't see this playing out as India divorcing from Moscow.
Russia never financed any of the Slammics being sent in from Pakistan(one American ALLY)-those folks recieve funds from places like Saudi Arabia & the UAE(2 other American ALLIES!!).If anything,the same terrorists who enter into India,also pay routine pilgrimages to Chechnya.The Russians have desisted from selling any arms to the Pakis,despite Chinese pressure.If you look at the weapon systems sold to India & China,you will realise that India always gets ones which are technologically advanced.
While F-16s & P-3s can & do have an anti-terrorist role,I can't buy that argument as water-tight in the Pakistani context.For one,a Pakistani Mirage-3/5 or it's Chinese 'Fantans' can do the same ground attack jobs against the Slammics in Pakistan,unless ofcourse,the AQAF has become fully operational!!They have had access to Chinese & Italian technology to upgrade the avionics of those (old) planes,so delivery of PGMs is not impossible.What strikes me as odd,is the number of F-16s they want in total(70) & their explicit request for AMRAAMs.
The argument for the P-3,TOW-2 ATGM & Phalanx CIWS must be examined in the same light.The TOW 2A variant the Pakistani Army seeks is equipped with tandem warheads,which is optimum against the T-72 & T-90 tanks of the Indian army,some of which maybe/are in the process of being equipped with reactive armour.Using this variant of the TOW is like using a F/A-22 to go after a grounded biplane.The Pakistani army's new 'Bhaktar Shikan'(xerox of some Chinese system)is more than sufficient & besides it's cheaper.You don't need a gun system that spouts out 4,500 rounds a minute to destroy terrorist dinghies-your 12.7 mm machine guns are the bet for that.Pakistan will be getting Harpoon missiles with their Orions-so draw your conclusions on that!!
Yawn, get real, they cosied up to the USSR as a counter-balance to China and they are still pally with Russia for the same reason -- Russia and India are the allies trying to contain China. It's logical for them and it WAS logical in the past as well
He must have never heard of Brzezinski and the $$.gov that built up the Taliban when they were still the "good Muslims" fighting the bade Soviets.
Take a long hard look at the weaponry that al Qaeda uses. Apart from our airplanes that they used on 9/11, everything they utilize was made in Russia.
Which they could've gotten from china.
This is so wrong. Pak airforce already has 100s of figther aircraft even to wage a war with india. How is it that they need to more aircraft just to drop a few bombs in the mountains? Think about that. It makes no sense.
Do you even realize that 5 years ago PAk was threatening India with a nuclear attack? Dont forget that India is fast becoming a major trading partner of the US. If india is attacked US interests will be harmed.
AlQ got their weapons whent he Soviets were chased out of Afghanistan by the Mujahideen (courtesy of Pakistan and the CIA)
Ok,let's look at a blowdown of all AQ weapons used till date or is likely to be used:-
1.The AK-47 & Ak-56 guns-both started out as standard Soviet issues.Is the preferred weapon of terrorists & rebel groups the world over.Is built both under license & illegally in the various states of the former Soviet Union(& that includes not only Russia),China,India,Pakistan & pretty much anyone who can get the materials.These are sold both on the legal market & on the black market & anyone can purchase it without bothering whether it's built officially.
2.RPGs- started out as a Soviet weapon,but the Chinese have entered the market in a big way.Chinese variants are big on the black arms market & are also used by the Pakistani army,which is close to the Taliban.Besides,there are numerous RPGs which are leftovers of previous conflicts,including the 80s Afghan war.
3.MANPADs-Al Qaeda or it's affiliates have used both the ex-Soviet SA-7 Strela & the American Stinger.The Stinger was given to the Mujahideen in the 80s by the CIA to take on Soviet Mi-24 Hinds,only problem is that they forgot to take it back.Shoulder fired SAMs are also built by a number of nations for the black market,including China & Pakistan.They also can be acquired from former conflict zones.
4.Fighter aircraft/nukes-AQ are yet to use fighters,but when they do,it will jets used by countries where their ideology is strongest,including possibly Pakistan,Saudi Arabia,Egypt.All 3 of those nations use a lot of American aircraft including the F-15D & F-15S(Saudi Arabia) & F-16(Pakistan & Egypt).In 2003,Israel said that they expected a jihadi Saudi pilot to use his F-15S as a suicide weapon.Material for dirty nukes can be & has been found in the Former Soviet republics,but the chance for a real nuke is most visible from Pakistan.They have proliferated to North Korea,Iran,Libya & possibly Saudi Arabia.
We always knew it but the Nehru family has sympathy for Communism and made India's economic policy similar to Stalinist USSR. Right now, the Nehru family has formed a government with the Communists and any journalists who dares speak against the government faces a crackdown.
We indians are ashamed of the Nehru policy and the fact that they made India into a satellite state of USSR. Trust me, majority of the people are against it as their policies is what reduced india to the state of an underdeveloped country.
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