The United States president Barack Obama signed into law the USD 618 billion defence budget for 2017, to boost security cooperation with India and conditions nearly half of the funding to Pakistan on conditions.

President Obama signed the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2017, which asks Defence Secretary and Secretary of State to take steps necessary to recognize India as America’s “major defence partner”.

The summary of the bill released by Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said NDAA-2017 “enhances security cooperation” between the United States and India.

On the other hand, earlier, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter refused to give a similar certification to Pakistan and said that, “I remain deeply concerned about the Congress’s use of the National Defence Authorisation Act to impose extensive organisational changes on the Department of Defence, disregarding the advice of the Department’s senior civilian and uniformed leaders.”

“The extensive changes in the bill are rushed, the consequences poorly understood, and they come at a particularly inappropriate time as we undertake a transition between administrations. These changes not only impose additional administrative burdens on the Department of Defence and make it less agile, but they also create additional bureaucracies and operational restrictions that generate inefficiencies at a time when we need to be more efficient.”

Ban Ki-moon asked India, Pakistan to resolve differences through dialogue

Nandini