[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 117 (Thursday, June 25, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S3610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2205. Mr. SULLIVAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed 
by him to the bill S. 4049, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2021 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle E of title XII, add the following:

     SEC. 1262. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON UNITED STATES-INDIA DEFENSE 
                   RELATIONSHIP.

       (a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) the United States has made meaningful progress in 
     strengthening its major defense partnership with India by--
       (A) maintaining a broad-based strategic partnership, 
     underpinned by shared interests and objectives in promoting a 
     rules-based international system;
       (B) establishing the joint/tri-service exercise, Tiger 
     TRIUMPH, focused on amphibious operations;
       (C) building joint peacekeeping capacity efforts;
       (D) enhancing United States-India maritime domain awareness 
     cooperation;
       (E) leveraging the secure communications equipment enabled 
     by the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement;
       (F) installing liaison officers at United States Naval 
     Forces Central Command and the maritime Information Fusion 
     Center of India;
       (G) establishing a secure hotline for the four 2+2 
     Ministers, which is the consultation mechanism between--
       (i) the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense; 
     and
       (ii) the Minister of External Affairs and the Minister of 
     Defence of India; and
       (H) discussing critical mutual defense issues at the first 
     quadrilateral ministerial-level meeting on the sidelines of 
     the United Nations General Assembly among the United States, 
     India, Australia, and Japan in September 2019; and
       (2) the United States should strengthen and enhance its 
     major defense partnership with India by--
       (A) expanding defense-specific engagement in multilateral 
     frameworks, including the quadrilateral dialogue among the 
     United States, India, Japan, and Australia, to promote 
     regional security and defend shared values and common 
     interests in the rules-based order;
       (B) increasing the frequency and scope of exchanges between 
     senior military officers of the United States and India to 
     support the development and implementation of the major 
     defense partnership;
       (C) exploring additional steps to implement the major 
     defense partner designation to better facilitate 
     interoperability, information sharing, and appropriate 
     technology transfers;
       (D) pursuing strategic initiatives to help develop the 
     defense capabilities of India;
       (E) conducting additional combined exercises with India in 
     the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, and western Pacific regions;
       (F) furthering cooperative efforts to promote stability and 
     security in Afghanistan;
       (G) remaining committed to concluding the two remaining 
     ``enabling agreements'', which are--
       (i) the Industrial Security Agreement; and
       (ii) the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement;
       (H) fully and quickly implementing of the Communications 
     Compatibility and Security Agreement, which is critical to 
     advancing United States-India interoperability;
       (I) continuing the efforts of the Commander of the United 
     States Indo-Pacific Command, in cooperation with the Minister 
     of Defence of India--
       (i) to retrofit existing United States-origin equipment; 
     and
       (ii) to incorporate communications security into future 
     United States defense sales;
       (J) focusing on several priority areas for cooperation, 
     including Air Launched Small Unmanned Aerial Systems, 
     Lightweight Small Arms Technologies, and Intelligence 
     Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance;
       (K) expanding military-to-military cooperation, including 
     more joint/tri-service cooperation;
       (L) strengthening maritime operational cooperation and 
     information sharing;
       (M) increasing Professional Military Education 
     opportunities and exchanges between personnel and liaison 
     officers; and
       (N) strengthening cooperation between the Army, Air Force, 
     and Special Operations Forces of the United States and the 
     military forces of India; and
       (O) identifying additional practical areas for cooperation 
     between the United States and India in and beyond the Indo-
     Pacific region.
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