The United States and India are close to signing an agreement that will allow the militaries of both nations to use each other's land, air and naval bases for resupplies, repair and rest, a top ranking US military commander has said.

The commander of the US Pacific Command (USPACOM) Admiral Harry Harris said on Wednesday that he is confident the two countries will soon resolve concerns over a logistical support agreement (LSA) that has been in the pipeline for 12 years.

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"We have not gotten to the point of signing them with India, but I think we're close," said Harris, who is scheduled to visit India this week.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reportedly signaled a desire to move ahead with the agreement.

"Third Party"

Harris made the announcement as the two countries consider joint naval patrols, which an unnamed US official said could cover the waters of the South China Sea, according to Reuters. 

While officials from both India and the US have clarified that the two countries have no immediate plans to conduct the joint patrols, the reports of possible US-India naval operations in the contentious Asian waterway has prompted an angry reaction from Beijing.

"No cooperation between any countries should be directed at a third party," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in an e-mail to Reuters earlier this month.

Defense ties between the US and India have been slow to evolve, and experts say the military relationship between the two countries is still very much in its early stages.  This is despite years of talk from the Bush and Obama administrations about India's importance in striking a balance of power in the Asia Pacific.

India's previous leaders had balked at the proposed LSA with the US military, fearing the deal would draw the country into a binding commitment to support the US in war.  But Washington has assured the Modi administration that the agreement does not provide for unqualified Indian support for the US in any armed conflict to which India is not a party.

"It has been clarified that it will be done on a case-to-case basis," an official close to the negotiations told Reuters. "It's not automatic that either side will get access to facilities in the case of war."

Deepening Ties

Defense experts nonetheless say Modi's willingness to move forward on the deal -- which is likely to raise eyebrows in Beijing -- is an indication of the deepening defense ties between the two countries.

India has expressed alarm over the Chinese navy's forays into the Indian Ocean, and has moved to build up its naval forces even as it has worked to strengthen defense ties with Japan and Vietnam, both of which have territorial disputes with China.

The US has meanwhile replaced Russia as India's top source of military hardware, and now conducts more naval exercises with the country than with any other nation in the region.

Admiral Harris said the US and India are also in talks over a communications interoperability and security memorandum of agreement (CISMOA), as well as a pact on the exchange of topographical, nautical and aeronautical data.

US officials hope that once the LSA is finalized and signed, the two other pending security agreements would follow.    

Negotiations are already underway for the US to help India build its largest aircraft carrier, a deal which -- if realized -- would mark the biggest military collaboration between the two countries to date.

"There is a growing convergence between Obama's Asia pivot and Modi's Act East policy," Saroj Bishoyi, an expert on the proposed US-India collaboration at the government-funded Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, told Reuters. "The LSA currently appears to be a doable agreement." 

TagsChina-India, US-India relations, Adm. Harry Harris