What is India-US BECA Agreement?

India and the United States will sign the Basic Exchange and Cooperation  Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation on October 27, 2020 during the third round of 2+2 Ministerial dialogue.

Highlights

• The BECA agreement will provide India access to extremely accurate geo-spatial data.
• The spatial data will have several military applications which will help in improving the accuracy of the missile systems of India.
• The announcement has been made after a meeting between Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his US Counterpart Mark Esper who is visiting India for the India-US 2+2 dialogue.

BECA agreement

BECA is the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for geo-spatial cooperation. It is basically a communication agreement that has been proposed between the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency of the US Department of Defence and the Indian Union Ministry of Defence. With this agreement, India and the US will be able to exchange important military information such as advanced satellite and topographic data including maps, geophysical data, geodetic data, geomagnetic data, gravity data and nautical and aeronautical charts.  The agreement also include the provision of sharing classified information with proper safeguards. It will further ensure that it is not shared with any third party.

Background

BECA is the last agreement of the four foundational agreements that was signed between India and the US in order to strengthen defence ties. These agreements covers areas such as security and military information, logistics exchange and communications and compatibility and security. BECA aims to enhance the geospatial cooperation between India and the US. Other three agreements include-

• General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) , 2002.
• Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), 2016.
• Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), 2018.