Foundational agreements
Also called: LEMOA, COMCASA, BECA · Topic: India's External Relations, 1947-1999: Non-alignment, Wars and Nuclear Policy · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
"Foundational agreements" is the name for three defence agreements between India and the US: LEMOA, COMCASA and BECA. LEMOA covers logistics support, which means help with fuel, supplies and repairs for each other's forces. COMCASA covers secure communications, so the two militaries can talk without others listening in. BECA covers sharing geospatial data, which is map and location data. Together they build interoperability, meaning Indian and US forces can work together smoothly. They are called "foundational" because the wider India-US Major Defence Partnership, as India has been designated since 2016, rests on them.
Example
The joint statement of the third India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue said BECA had been signed and that LEMOA and COMCASA were being put into practice. These agreements let Indian forces get logistics from a partner, use secure links and share map data. That makes India more useful to the partner as well, so the arrangement does not only make India more dependent.
Don't confuse with
- Military alliance: the foundational agreements do not commit India to fight alongside the US. They are not a pact like NATO. They only make it practical for the two forces to cooperate when both choose to.
- Security of Supply Arrangement (SoSA, August 2024): SoSA is about each side trying to put the other's defence orders first during emergencies. It deals with supply, not logistics, communications or map data.