India-US Sign the LEMOA Pact, but What Exactly Is It?

The LEMOA is an agreement that the US considers “foundational” for defence cooperation with any country.

The Quint explains what exactly is LEMOA. (Photo: The Quint)

India’s signed the LEMOA with the United States of America. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter shook hands over it. But what IS the LEMOA?

The Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement or LEMOA is an agreement that the US considers “foundational” for defence cooperation with any country. One of these foundational agreements was signed between the US and India in 2002 – the General Security of Military Information Agreement.

Two others – the Communications and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement or CISMOA, and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for geospatial intelligence or BECA haven’t been signed and there doesn’t seem to be a timeline for them either.

For the US, these are pretty standard agreements with their defence partners. For India, however, these aren’t so standard. It’s taken this long to sign just two because India’s afraid that this may take away from its strategic autonomy.

So LEMOA has been prepared as an India-specific agreement unlike the standard Logistics Support Agreement or (and here’s another acronym) the LSA. And even as it was signed, both parties made it clear that this agreement does not allow for the basing of US troops in India and does not make support obligatory, which means LEMOA is non-binding. The agreement only gives the militaries of both countries access to each other’s bases for supplies, repairs and similar logistical support. This makes military engagement and exchange as well as joint operations, humanitarian assistance and relief operations easier.

India and US have already collaborated in the past on these like during the 2004 tsunami relief efforts and in 2015 for the Nepal earthquake relief work.

In June, during PM Modi’s visit to the US, the country designated India as a “major defence partner”. That means more collaboration, co-production, co-development and technology transfer in defence.

All of this adds to India and US’ Defence Technology and Trade Initiative or the DTTI. Yes, defence partnerships have a LOT of acronyms.

Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam