Ministry of Defence (MoD) has clarified that the logistics agreement signed between India and United States will work only on the basis of mutual consent.
The clarification was issued through a series of tweets posted from defence ministry’s official Twitter handle.
The defence ministry also added that defence cooperation between India and US was never stronger than what it is today.
The Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) was signed between India and the US on Monday in Washington, in the presence of visiting Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter.
"LEMOA is a facilitating agreement that establishes terms, conditions, procedures for reciprocal provision of logistic support, supplies, service. Reciprocal logistic support would be used exclusively in port visits, joint exercises, joint training, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief," it said.
"Logistics support for any other cooperative efforts shall only be provided on case to case basis through prior mutual consent of parties," it said, adding that this consent would be consistent with the respective laws, regulations and policies.
The tweets added that LEMOA "does not create any obligations on either party to carry out any joint activity", "does not provide for the establishment of any bases or basing arrangements", and "significantly enhances operational capacity of our armed forces, including in response to humanitarian crises or disaster relief".
(With IANS inputs)
