US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel’s visit to India :

No to the proposed dangerous military alliance of US, India and Japan!

The US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel came on a three day visit to India beginning August 7, to sell to the Indian government and the bourgeois think tanks of our country the benefits of India joining a military alliance with the US, Japan and some other countries of the Asia Pacific.

No to the proposed dangerous military alliance of US, India and Japan!

The US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel came on a three day visit to India beginning August 7, to sell to the Indian government and the bourgeois think tanks of our country the benefits of India joining a military alliance with the US, Japan and some other countries of the Asia Pacific. This was raised both in his talks with foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and at a public lecture on August 9, organized by the Reliance Industries backed think tank, Observer Research Foundation.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls upon the people of India to reject this proposal of the US.

The aim of this proposal is very clear. It is to involve our country and our people in a war mongering military alliance in the Asia Pacific Region directed against China and against all the peoples of this region. It will be a direct threat to the independence and sovereignty of all the peoples of the region. It has the potential to plunge the region into a war of devastating consequences, where Asians fight Asians and the Americans celebrate the victory of their Asia Pivot Policy which is aimed at establishing their complete economic, political and military domination of the Asia Pacific Region in the coming decade.

Hagel gave the call for India to “play the role of a global power” in the Asia Pacific Region, and declared the “The US strongly supports India’s growing global influence and military capabilities including its potential as a security provider from the Indian Ocean to the greater Pacific”.

Thinking and patriotic Indians must ask themselves — why would the US want India to expand its influence to the Greater Pacific? The US does not like any other country to challenge its domination of any of the seas or the continents. The US sees its greatest challenge at this time from the countries and peoples of the Asian continent — stretching from Russia, the Central Asian Republics, West Asia, India, South East Asia to China and the Koreas, Japan and Indonesia. This is the continent that has more than 60% of the world’s population, and has the fastest growing economies of the world. This is the continent which is extremely rich in natural resources including energy and other minerals. This is the continent where many of the countries are striving to build regional alliances of economic and political nature to counter the US threat. And most importantly, this is the continent that has some of the biggest potential challengers to US world and regional supremacy — Russia, China, India, Japan, Iran etc.

The US wants to get India into its military strategic embrace so that Indian soldiers, sailors and airmen will give their lives to advance US strategy for domination of Asia Pacific region. It wants to integrate the Indian armed forces under its command and control. Towards this end, it is inciting the imperialist ambitions of the Indian reactionary bourgeoisie towards the East, to further its aims in Asia Pacific. The Indian people are expected to foot the bill of militarization and wars, while the big bourgeoisie of our country can reap profits in collusion with the US imperialists.

The call for India to join a military alliance in Asia Pacific with the US and Japan and some other countries, came on the day of the anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb over Nagasaki in Japan 69 years ago. It came on the day US President Barack Obama ordered airstrikes over Iraq, and Israel completed one month of bombardment of Gaza with the open military and political backing of the US imperialists. It came at a time when US NATO forces are openly egging the Ukrainian government to carry out massacres in Eastern Ukraine.

Far from joining any military alliance with this most bloodthirsty imperialist power which is wreaking death and destruction world over directly as well as through its allies and agencies, the people of India need to force the government of our country to openly and publicly end the Indo US strategic alliance.

Towards implementing its Asia Pivot Policy, the US is seeking both bilateral military ties with individual countries as well as multilateral military alliances. US imperialism already has military alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Over 60% of US forces are now concentrated in the Pacific Ocean region.

Outcome of military alliances with the US

CENTO (Central Treaty Organisation) was a military alliance created in the 1950’s to cover the region from West Asia to Pakistan to allegedly fight the Soviet threat. The members of CENTO were US, Britain, France, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. Iraq withdrew from CENTO after the monarch was overthrown in 1959. CENTO collapsed after the Iranian revolution of 1979.

SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organisation) was a military alliance modeled after NATO for South East Asia. It was also created in the 1950’s. Its members were US, Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Phillipines and Thailand. Its aim was to allegedly combat the spread of communism in the countries of South East Asia. It collapsed in 1976 after the victory of the Vietnamese people.

Hagel openly proposed that India must join this military grouping. The visit of Hagel followed just a week after that of US Foreign Secretary Kerry. It is in preparation for the Modi – Obama meeting in end September. The US is obviously exploring all possibilities to entice India into a military alliance.

Countries that have embraced the clutches of US imperialism have lost not only their sovereignty, but also their very existence as peoples is endangered. Pakistan, our neighbor is an example we must never forget. Pakistan was a member of the CENTO alliance led by the US. That did not save it from dismemberment. The further collaboration of successive Pakistani governments with US imperialism has brought that country to the edge of disintegration and civil war.

The people of Iran were tortured and humiliated under the rule of the Shah, who was central to the US led CENTO alliance in West Asia. It was the courageous revolution of the Iranian people in 1979 that not only secured Iran’s sovereignty, but also signaled the end of CENTO military alliance. Similarly, in South East Asia, in the name of combating communism, the US established the SEATO. The peoples of the South East Asian countries paid a heavy price under the jackboots of the US armed forces, in particular the people of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It was the defeat inflicted on the US by the heroic Vietnamese people and popular uprisings in other countries, including Philipines which, led to the dismantling of SEATO military alliance. Over the past two decades the peoples of South East Asia have tried to forge multilateral organizations for mutual benefit.

The CGPI calls upon the patriotic and peace loving people of our country to unite in opposition to US imperialism and its plan to establish its complete domination over the countries and peoples of Asia.

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