US Select Committee on CCP recommends India to be part of NATO Plus

A Congressional Committee or the Select Committee on CCP (Chinese Communist Party) in the US has recommended India to be a part of NATO Plus. The decision to add India as a member country comes just ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US.

NATO Plus currently has five members — Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, and South Korea. The group works toward boosting global defence cooperation.

By becoming a member, India will be able to seamlessly share intelligence with the other five countries.

The House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Chairman Mike Gallagher and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi, overwhelmingly adopted a policy proposal to enhance Taiwan’s deterrence, including strengthening NATO Plus to include India.

“Winning the strategic competition with the Chinese Communist Party and ensuring the security of Taiwan demands the United States strengthen ties to our allies and security partners, including India. Including India in NATO Plus security arrangements would build upon the US and India’s close partnership to strengthen global security and deter the aggression of the CCP across the Indo-Pacific region,” the Select Committee recommended.

What is the Select Committee on CCP?

As per its official website, the Select Committee on the CCP is “committed to working on a bipartisan basis to build consensus on the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party and develop a plan of action to defend the American people, our economy, and our values.”

The panel’s top Democratic leader Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois said that both Democrats and Republicans should work across the aisle.

“We must practice bipartisanship. We must recognize that the CCP wants us to be fractious, partisan and prejudiced,” a reference to the Chinese Communist Party,” said Krishnamoorthi.

Select Committee’s plan for China

Indian-American Ramesh Kapoor, who has been working on this proposal for the past six years, said this is a significant development. He hoped that the recommendation would find a place in the National Defense Authorization Act 2024 and finally end up becoming a law of the land.

The committee believes that hitting China with economic sanctions in case it plans to attack Taiwan is the most effective way key allies like G7, NATO, NATO+5, and Quad members join, and negotiate a joint response and broadcasting this message publicly have the added benefit of enhancing deterrence.

The committee said in a statement, “Much like we do joint contingency planning for war fighting, we need to coordinate in peacetime with US allies. To that end, Congress should pass legislation similar to the STAND with Taiwan Act of 2023 that mandates the development of an economic sanctions package to be employed in the event of a PRC attack on Taiwan.”

“The United States should strengthen the NATO Plus arrangement to include India. The United States should also strengthen diplomatic deterrence by supporting Taiwan’s participation in international organizations and amending the TAIPEI Act to provide that the United States, alongside its allies and partners, should publicly oppose any attempts by the CCP to resolve the status of Taiwan’s sovereignty by intentionally misusing, misinterpreting, and misleading others on the underlying purpose of UN Resolution 2758 or the United States’ One China Policy,” it added.

With inputs from agencies

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