‘Military diplomacy’ sounds like an oxymoron. Diplomacy is about culture and finesse –graduated gratification of desire- military is about roughing it out and instant success.

The article published in The Hindu (28 March 2011) on the Wikileaks cables focusing on the landmark Indo-US Agreement of June 2005 on a “New Framework for US-India Defence Relationship” as part of a wider strategic engagement between India and the US has received less attention than it deserves.

Newsclick Analyst D.Raghunandan comments on the Wikileaks' cables on the Indo-US Defence Framework Agreement, accessed by The Hindu newspaper. He says there is nothing surprising about the content of the cables, which clearly suggest how the US is trying to get India into a closer strategic and defence partnership, notwithstanding pressures from the Indian military and civilian bureaucracies to resist a total bandwagoning.