Washington, Oct 22 (IANS): Calling India a "critically important player" in the Asia Pacific region, a top US commander would like to increase cooperation between the armies of the two countries besides the ongoing naval cooperation.
Although maritime cooperation is going on with India, Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander, US Army Pacific (USARPAC), "wants to increase land-force cooperation and interoperability as well, as India is a critically important player in the entire region".
The US is looking ahead to increase the opportunities as much as possible, "which is governed by the pace of our relationship", said Brooks, who had to cancel his first trip to India earlier this month due to the 16-day US government shutdown.
"The opportunities for defence cooperation between India and the US are abundant," he said at a press engagement Monday at the Association of the US Army's 2013 Annual Meeting and Exposition here, according to US Army News Service.
"We are seeking to increase amount of work that we do together. It can be in a number of issues like disaster response, we have done some interoperability in high altitude, for example, our troops in Alaska go to India and train in the mountains," Brookes said.
Countries throughout the Asia Pacific region are "excited by our increased participation here", said Brooks, a four-star general.
"We intend to put into motion a pathway of activity (for the Army) into multiple countries for extended periods of time, linking a series of events and exercises on a variety of topics," he added.
Units that will see duty in the Pacific region will be a mixture of high-readiness brigades as well as small units of expertise and may include some that are not at the highest readiness level within the Army Force Generation cycle, he said.
In the way ahead, Brooks sees an increase in aviation, both manned as well as unmanned, in the region, fully integrated with air assets of the other services.
Missile defence will be fortified as well, he said, as "adversaries are increasing the range and lethality of their surface-to-surface missiles and we're actively involved in addressing that now".