Former Indian armed forces officers to lobby for Indo-US nuke deal

Former senior officers of the Indian armed forces are likely to fly to Washington next week to participate in the deliberations of the Indian American Security Leadership Council (IASLC), an organisation set up last year to push through the enabling legislation to facilitate the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal through Congress.

Washington, Aug.31 : Former senior officers of the Indian armed forces are likely to fly to Washington next week to participate in the deliberations of the Indian American Security Leadership Council (IASLC), an organisation set up last year to push through the enabling legislation to facilitate the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal through Congress.

According to a rediff report, the organisation is flying in Admiral K K Nayar, Air Marshal B D Jayal and Lt Gen J F R Jacob (all retired) to participate in a luncheon and conference on an envisaged US-India Security Alliance on September 5, on Capitol Hill.

The website says that several senior Pentagon officials like James Clad, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia, and Admiral (retired) Walter Doran, a former Commander of the Pacific Fleet, would also participate in the conference.

The luncheon and conference, is also slated as a 68th year reunion of Indo-US armed services, according to the IASLC invitation.

An IASCL official said the rationale of inviting the former top brass of the Indian armed services was essentially to have them meet with senior lawmakers in the US Congress and also the American public to convince them of the importance of a security alliance between the US and India.

"The essence of their talks will be security and strategy and a military partnership between India and the US. They will talk about the benefits of an Indo-US strategic alliance on the military side -- about how important it is," the official was quoted by the website, as saying.

ANI