S.Amdt. 2127

SA 2127. Mr. SULLIVAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 4049, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2021 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

SEC. ___. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON UNITED STATES-INDIA DEFENSE
RELATIONSHIP.

(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that-
(1) the United States has made meaningful progress in
strengthening its major defense partnership with India by-
(A) maintaining a broad-based strategic partnership,
underpinned by shared interests

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and objectives in promoting a rules-based international
system;
(B) establishing the joint/tri-service exercise, Tiger
TRIUMPH, focused on amphibious operations;
(C) building joint peacekeeping capacity efforts;
(D) enhancing United States-India maritime domain awareness
cooperation;
(E) leveraging the secure communications equipment enabled
by the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement;
(F) installing liaison officers at United States Naval
Forces Central Command and the maritime Information Fusion
Center of India;
(G) establishing a secure hotline for the four 2+2
Ministers, which is the consultation mechanism between-
(i) the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense:
and
(ii) the Minister of External Affairs and the Minister of
Defence of India; and
(H) discussing critical mutual defense issues at the first
quadrilateral ministerial-level meeting on the sidelines of
the United Nations General Assembly among the United States,
India, Australia, and Japan in September 2019; and
(2) the United States should strengthen and enhance its
major defense partnership with India by-
(A) expanding defense-specific engagement in multilateral
frameworks, including the quadrilateral dialogue among the
United States, India, Japan, and Australia, to promote
regional security and defend shared values and common
interests in the rules-based order;
(B) increasing the frequency and scope of exchanges between
senior military officers of the United! States and India to
support the development and implementation of the major
defense partnership:
(C) exploring additional steps to implement the major
defense partner designation to better facilitate
interoperability, information sharing, and appropriate
technology transfers; '
(D) pursuing strategic initiatives to help develop the
defense capabilities of India;
(E) conducting additional combined exercises with India in
the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, and western Pacific regions;
(F) furthering cooperative efforts to promote stability and
security in Afghanistan;
(G) remaining committed to concluding the two remaining
``enabling agreements'', which are-
(i) the Industrial Security Agreement; and
(ii) the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement;
(H) fully and quickly implementing of the Communications
Compatibility and Security Agreement, which is critical to
advancing United States-India interoperability:
(I) continuing the efforts of the Commander of the United
States Inda-Pacific Command, in cooperation with the Minister
of Defence of India-
(i) to retrofit existing United States-origin equipment;
and
(ii) to incorporate communications security into future
United States defense sales;
(J) focusing on several priority areas for cooperation,
including Air Launched Small Unmanned Aerial Systems,
Lightweight Small Arms Technologies, and Intelligence
Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance;
(K) expanding military-to-military cooperation, including
more joint/tri-service cooperation;
(L) strengthening maritime operational cooperation and
information sharing;
(M) increasing Professional Military Education
opportunities and exchanges between personnel and liaison
officers; and
(N) strengthening cooperation between the Army, Air Force,
and Special Operations Forces of the United States and the
military forces of India; and
(O) identifying additional practical areas for cooperation
between the United States
and India in and beyond the Indo-Pacific region.
(3) The U.S. should commend India on its recent, continued,
and positive trajectory on decreasing purchases of Russian-
made weapons systems and encourage them to be mindful of when
considering future purchases of Russian-made systems.
______