On Oct. 5, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin formally announced the signing of a $5 billion weapons deal. India will purchase five S-400 Triumf missile systems, which are utilized to protect strategic and valuable locations from aerial attack. Russia supplied India with 62 percent of its weapons from 2013 to 2017, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Given this, the Pentagon should develop a plan transitioning India’s old weapons from their heavy reliance on Russian weapons systems to purchasing weapons from the United States and our Eurasian allies.

This announcement occurred after a meeting on Sept. 6, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis convened with their Indian counterparts, Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. The meeting was successful in emphasizing an increasingly continental strategic balancing alliance. India signed onto the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), which aims to strengthen United States ties with India in order to counter China’s rise in the South China Sea. Preventing any probes or Chinese revanchism there is an imperative for both regional partners and U.S. foreign policy.

Emblematic of the veritable significance of this alliance, the Pentagon changed the name of Pacific Command to Indo-Pacific Command on May 30. COMCASA has permitted India access to purchase advanced weaponry systems from the United States. India’s trade-off is permitting the use of its communications network for the U.S. military and the sharing of encrypted military intelligence. The Indian military is also considering the purchase of fighter aircrafts from the United States, replacing their current inferior Russian models. However, the purchase of the S-400s is perturbing to the Pentagon’s forethought expectation that they would eventually sell India an F-35 fighter aircraft.

This diplomatic gaffe may materialize in a work environment filled with low morale after the Trump administration proposed a 30 percent decrease to the international affairs budget. In the words of American Foreign Service Association President, Ambassador Barbara Stephenson, “the Foreign Service Officer Corps at State has lost 60 percent of its Career Ambassadors since January [2017].” Diplomacy is an ancillary institution harnessing the soft power of the United States. Diplomats resolve conflicts without military force, creating peaceful resolutions and fostering relationships that can increase common consensus and lead to alliances.

The severe myopia in policy allowed Putin to exploit this aperture. Countries with the Triumf missile systems include Greece, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ukraine and Bulgaria. To combat this, the United States can sanction India under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, though there is the possibility for the current administration to grant India a waiver. Still, India was among the top five weapons importers in the world from 2013 to 2017. From 2008 to 2017, India’s purchases of U.S. weapons increased by 557 percent and it is one of the top purchasers of U.S. weapons at 5.3 percent annually.

The United States should bolster its strategic alliance with India, providing a waiver for the importation of Iranian oil. This alliance would be a welcome accretion to solidify ties with India, providing it with superior weapons systems. The creation of a Qualitative Military Edge for India in South East Asia would be a strategic imperative that should be implemented cautiously. The United States should be prudent in providing weapons to India; these weapons should be incorporated to balance and counter a rising irredentist China in South East Asia. Furthermore, this implementation will strengthen the growing alliance between the world’s largest democratic states.

Mendel Litzman is a junior majoring in political science.