What are the four foundational agreements between India and the US?

Between 2002 and 2020 India and the United States signed four agreements that set out how their militaries can work together: what secrets they may share, how they may supply each other, how they may talk securely and what maps they may exchange. A government note calls LEMOA a “foundational agreement”, and the four are usually discussed together under that name. Each is short and specific. Read together, they show a partnership built in steps, each one limited to what it says.

What is GSOMIA?

The first and oldest: a rule for protecting secrets. On 14 March 2002 the Defence Minister told the Lok Sabha that the two countries “have also signed a General Agreement which is intended to ensure adequate security of such classified military information, as may be decided to be shared by each country.” Note the last words: the agreement protects what is shared, and each country still decides what to share.

What does LEMOA allow, and what does it not?

It lets each military draw on the other's logistics support, such as fuel, spares and services, during activities like training, exercises and disaster relief. It was signed in Washington on 29 August 2016. The Defence Ministry was careful to say what it is not: “It does not create any obligations on either Party to carry out any joint activity. It does not provide for the establishment of any bases or basing arrangements.”

What does COMCASA do?

It provides for secure, compatible communications between the two militaries. It was signed on 6 September 2018 at the first India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue in New Delhi, where the joint statement said it would give India access to advanced defence systems and let it make better use of the US-origin platforms it already has. By the third 2+2, in 2020, the ministers recorded progress in putting it to use, including secure video links between the navies, armies, air forces and the two countries' foreign and defence ministries.

What does BECA share?

Maps and geospatial data. The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement was signed on 27 October 2020, at the third 2+2 in New Delhi. The Defence Ministry describes it as enabling the exchange of geospatial information between India's Ministry of Defence and the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The Defence Minister called its signing a significant step after LEMOA and COMCASA.

The four, side by side

Only LEMOA's official description says, in so many words, what it does not do. The others are described by what they enable; each sets terms for cooperation the two sides choose to undertake.

What was built on them?

A status and a framework. In the joint statement of 7 June 2016, “the United States hereby recognizes India as a Major Defense Partner”, alongside licence-free access for India to a wide range of dual-use technologies. A framework for defence relations was renewed for ten years in 2015, and on 31 October 2025, at a meeting of defence ministers in Kuala Lumpur, the two countries signed a new ten-year Framework for the Major Defence Partnership. The two defence ministers reviewed its progress at Cebu, in the Philippines, on 28 October 2026.

This essay sets out what the texts and the governments' own descriptions say, and takes no position on the partnership itself.