India won't have unlimited patience if 26/11 is repeated: Robert Gates

India could run out of patience if terrorists mount another 26/11-like attack, US defence secretary Robert Gates has said.

A terror “syndicate” including al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Lashkar-e-Taiba was trying to destabilise the region and instigate conflict between India and Pakistan, he warned on Wednesday.

“I think it is not unreasonable to assume Indian patience would be limited were there to be further attacks,” Gates told reporters after meeting Indian leaders for two days, during which he failed to get them to agree to two umbrella agreements in the military arena.

These agreements — the Communications and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (Cismoa) and Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) — are far too intrusive for India’s comfort.   

Gates said a “syndicate” of terrorist groups in South Asia is focused on destabilising Afghanistan and Pakistan, and attacking targets in India. The groups, led by al Qaeda, are trying “to destabilise… potentially the whole region by provoking a conflict perhaps between India and Pakistan through some provocative act”.

Terrorist attacks, he said, were a “real existential threat to Pakistan”. “It is important to recognise the magnitude of the threat the region is facing.

“The success of any one of these groups leads to new capabilities and new reputations for all these groups… A victory for one is a victory for all.”

What he left unsaid — of the role of the Pakistani establishment in
orchestrating attacks in India — was noticeable. On Afghanistan, Gates clearly said that the US was not looking at any more military assistance “except some limited area of training” from India for Afghanistan.

Both India and Pakistan are mutually suspicious of each other’s activities in Afghanistan, and it is important that both operate with “full transparency” in the troubled nation, he said.

During his meetings with the prime minister, external affairs minister and defence minister, Gates tried to hard-sell the need to sign both Cismoa and the LSA. But he admitted that the US side failed to convince the ministers. Antony told Gates that the “proposed agreements would need to be assessed from the view point of the benefits which would accrue to India”.

The LSA would allow US and Indian military aircraft and warships access to each other’s ports and airfields for refuelling on a barter basis. While Cismoa is a prerequisite for the supply of advanced military systems to India, it entails interoperability.

Despite the differences, it was evident that the US may be going
back to the Bush-era strategy of projecting India as a counterbalance to China, after a year of clumsy appeasement of the communist nation failed to draw much benefits for the US.

Gates said the two sides discussed Indian Ocean security, China’s military modernisation and the security of the global commons — sea, air and space. He praised India as a global power, and called Indo-US relations a “great success story” of recent times.