Interview with General Ray Odierno, US Army Chief of Staff

Interview with General Ray Odierno US Army Chief of Staff at Pentagon on August 01 2013

(Note: this is an unofficial transcripts done by me)

Question: Can you give us a sense, when you went to India in 2005-2006 (as military advisor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice), what kind of relationship, you think; we (India) had with the US?

General Odierno: Back then, it was once again the realization of how important India’s relationship was with the United States. As I travelled with the Secretary of State, she was there to reinforce how important the relationship between the two large democracies of the world was. And I think, this is something that has been ongoing for some years now. Everybody recognizes, India has so much in common with the United States and that it is important for us to sustain a strong long-lasting relationship.

Question: Now that you visited India this time (July 2013), can you give is an insight into what kind of relationship you want to develop with India, which are the places you visited?…

General Odierno: I think, President Obama has been very clear when he said that it is one of the most important strategic relationships that the United States has. And I think, in most of our most important relationships, foundation is strong on military to military relationships. And I think, as we move ahead, it is important for us to recognize that we have much in common. I think because of the long term relationship we had of the US sending its officers to India for training and India sending officers to the United States for training, it is just the first sign of how close we are. So it is important for us to sustain a long term relationship of one that is equal, one that respects each other’s strategic autonomy, but that one that enables us to learn from each other to develop together, to deal with many of the issues that we face around the world.

Question: So how do you see… what are the basic contours or parameters of this long term relationship that you would like to have with the Indian military?

General Odierno: I think it starts out from the military standpoint; it is about having common training; so whether it be educational or whether it be at the tactical level training. We just finished the exercise, just some time ago at Fort Brag, N Carolina, where we did joint exercise with the Indian Army. It is things like that we want to continue to build trust between each other – trust between our soldiers. We learn how professional each other armies are; the goals of what each army is trying to achieve, as we deal with these very uncertainties and unpredictable national security environment that we all face. So for us, it is about developing common understanding of each other. One thing I have learned over time is that the most important thing is to understand each other’s goals, understand each other’s priorities. And once you do that, that’s the foundation of building a strong relationship. By doing this training together, we are building that understanding and that confidence in each other and this is what we want to continue to do. As I was over there and visited many of the commands, I realized, really over the last 10 years we have been doing lot of the same things – operating in harsh environments, conducting counter insurgency operations. So we have a lot in common, a lot to learn from each other. I think, as we look ahead, we want to build from that common relationship that I think we have in our common experiences.

Question: You visited the Northern Command.

General Odierno: I did.

Question: What are the things that the US army can learn from the Indian Army? They (the Indian Army) are fighting at the Siachen, the highest battleground; then the terrain that you see on the J&K border; fighting insurgency.

General Odierno: I knew it already, but it was considering the diversity of the terrain from open points desert, to all the way up to glacier like environment, at extremely high altitudes. And the things that are in common, that require you to operate in conditions like that one is first individual soldier discipline, discipline just to take care of yourself in these harsh environments; the discipline that it takes to understand how you operate in counter insurgency environment, difficult environment, the importance of logistics and how you supply a complex operation.. We face similar things over the last couple of years. I think there are things that we can share a lot from each other. So we in forces things that we do, that we in force the professionalism of the Indian Army and how they have to deal with the many difficult problems. So I think with that common understanding we can learn from each other. We would love to do some joint training in the mountainous environment, because what the Indian Army has learned over the years, we would love to share what we learned about counter-insurgency and compare experiences and see how we can learn from each other and how we can direct that to use in the future, so for me it is something that is important. We prioritize our goals and our ability to provide logistics for the force no matter where they are in the world. We can also learn from what the Indian Army has to do from the challenges that they handle. It is that common thread that we have. So I think, we continue to work together, learn from each other and build trust and confidence between our armies.

Question: India and the United States have some exercise (in mountainous terrain) like the one in Mizoram. But would the US would like to have some kind of similar joint exercise in J&K like in Doda, Punch, the border region where the terrain is very difficult and similar to (Afghanistan)?

General Odierno: Ya. I think, we would like to look at that. I think, we would like to look at can we send may be send some people to learn how you train and operate in those environment and those are kind of had some initial discussions on.. much more has to be done. It is things like that we would be interested in.

Question: As you are now looking at the future perspective, long term perspective where do you the Indian Army evolving both in the South Asia region and its role in the Asia Pacific region.

General Odierno: I think the fact that the Indian Army is recognized as a true professional army, it is important that as we develop partnerships and as we develop bilateral relationships in the Asia Pacific region, where India is postured as a very important area of Asia Pacific, so I think, us working with them; helping understand the environment that they have to operate in, better understanding their view of the Asia Pacific environment, is important. So exchanges like that in future would be very important for us. One of the things, I stressed in Army, is that if we have to be successful, our leaders would have to look at problems to other people’s eyes; not just our eyes. So we clearly understand and can better articulate what are the issues that we have to try to solve. And I think, that is one thing we can certainly learn as we work closely with the Indian Army.

Question: You rightly said so, when the Indians gave you a presentation about their strategic perspective as was reported in local (Indian) newspapers… are you on the same page with the Indians the challenges that they are facing like China or terrorism?

General Odierno: I would say, for India to be different, it has some issues along the very long border, they have to protect themselves.. we do not quite have the same issues in the United States. However, what we can learn from them, is the techniques that they use to protect their sovereignty and those techniques can be used for us as we might have to conduct operations in the future no matter where it might be against whoever it might be there is a lot of lessons to be learnt.

Question: Techniques like?

General Odierno: Well, you know again it is how you conduct counter-insurgency in difficult environments. What does it take to do that? What are the rules that you have to follow? What that have learnt over a very long period of time, having execute this. How can we use that to help train our leaders in the future to make sure that they think through some of the difficult problems that they might face. I think, to me that is very important. The other thing that I talked to everyone is as we look at terrorism specifically, it is my believe that not only with India but with all our partners it is important that it must be a community of nations together who works to fight terrorism. And I think the more relationships that we can build who have common objectives about combatting terrorism, is really important. I think, as we look forward, that would be an important … that we work with India and many other nations involved.

Question: In the region itself, by 2014, the US plans to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and hand it over to the Afghan forces there is some fear of “surplus terrorism”. Do you see US and India in any way working together, fighting together, if that happens?

General Odierno: I think, that is a political decision. I think that that is a decision that be made if it is seen in our country in the best interest. But I certainly believe, we can certainly can share, lessons learnt, information, regarding terrorism. I think that is important as we face challenges in the future.

Question: can you give us an insight into the discussions that you had with the Indian leadership on the recent developments on its (India’s) border with China… the incursions. From the US perspective, what is happening there. Is it a normal routine thing or is heading towards some kind of a …

General Odierno: The impression I got talking to the Indian leadership was something fairly a routine (thing), something that they thought was very much routine actions among countries. There was good dialogue, you know, under good control and lot of restrain shown, and a lot of discussion. I think that’s the impression I took from my conversations.

Question: It is a very interesting time for the Indian Army. It has embarked upon an ambitious program of modernization. And the US Army is considered to be the best. But you are facing sequestration (automatic budgetary cuts). Given your experience here what are the advice you would give to the Indian Army. How to go about modernization with limited budget?

General Odierno: First what I would suggest that you have to prioritize what is most important and then my suggestion is you have to dedicate yourself to long term modernization program and also include the life-cycle cost to them. What that means is the ability to sustain over a long period of time. I think one of the strengths in our modernization program that we have been able to sustain it for a very long period of time and then project it to where we need to use it, sustain it. I think that is very important. We talked a little bit about, you know, looking at aviation, helicopters and things like that. We talked a little bit about my thoughts on capabilities on things like C-17, apache helicopters, how do we use those and in terrain equivalent to what India face and how we thought was worth looking at. So I think, those are the kind of advice that I would give – prioritize, commit and you have to commit to sustain a package that goes with the modernization which sustains over a very long period of time. Which, then makes a good investment. I think that is very important as they move forward.

Question: In the last 10 years the military trade between the two countries has increased from virtually zero to USD10 billion. Now India is moving into the next phase of modernization, what kind of assistance, or technological sharing the US can do with India?

General Odierno: Obviously the thing that we have to work, that is always a sometime a hindrance we have to get approved to share some technologies. What I promised General Singh is that I will be as transparent as possible in providing them the assistance that we are allowed to share with, we will try to work as hard as we can so that they can acquire the best technology possible. We think that it is in the best interest of both.

Official: Time for one more question.

Question: India is planning to have two more commands space and cyber commands. Was there any discussion on these two issues?

General Odierno: I did not talk specifically about it. What I did talk to about is the importance of our investment that we are making in cyber. As we look as the war fare continues to evolve and part of that evolution is the new areas where our adversaries where they try to get advantages, we have to learn how to operate those environments; cyber being one of them; space has been one for a while. So in my mind it is important as you look at the future that you have to understand the capabilities you need to operate under those environments. So we had initial discussions.

Question: Final question. Your impression about General Singh and the Indian Army?

General Odierno: I was significantly impressed by true professionalism of the Army. It is clear that they are focused on the right things. They are focused. They are having a disciplined force. They learn. They constantly adapt. To me that confidence and commitment is important and for me it was very impressive. When you understand the conditions that they are operating in, especially in the Northern Command and have difficulties created by the terrain and the environment itself as I said earlier, it takes a very disciplined force and professional leadership. I think, I was impressed throughout my visit with the professional leadership that I saw.