One of the relics of World War II it consists of five countries at present. Initially it was just the UK and the USA, however it was expanded to include Canada in 1948 and Australia and New Zealand in 1956, thereby creating the Five Eyes alliance, partly due to past shared Commonwealth heritage.
Image Courtesy: Cartoon: The Famous Five Eyes
Open Sources state that Britain’s Skynet, which collects virtually every bit of wireless data transmitted, Australia’s Jindalee’s OTH radar network, the US Space Fence network, as well as SIGINT, OPTINT, PHOTINT, Radar, Communication and others no doubt contribute to its contents.
In its bid to counter China, the US has looked to the other Asian giant. As the country which posesses the 6th largest satellite fleet in the world, as of 2020 and rather good localized intelligence in the IOR region and across the Himalayan border into Tibet, the choice cannot be faulted. Several millennia of HUMINT links via trading, diplomatic, and commercial ties in the Indo Pacific region is bound to be superior in some aspects to the Five Eyes capabilities.
Thus geopolitical watchers can see the benefits of adding India as a member. However, the planned inclusion of India has already drawn opposition from some quarters.
Adding India to Five Eyes intel-sharing club is recipe for new Cold War: Pak official
However, Indians themselves are in two minds. Prime Minister Modi did say to the US Congress that his nation and the US have overcome "the hesitations of history" but the “ground reality” is that India is wary that a formal US ally could get sucked into military adventurism in the future just as UK and Australia in the Iraq war. The US thrives on war as one of the pillars of its economy are the defence manufacturers and it has military bases all over the globe. New Delhi will never agree to open-ended commitments that might lead to a military entanglement.
India and the US already share key geospatial data under the recently signed (2020) BECA agreement that makes intelligence sharing easier and improves interoperability between the two powers.
However, historically the US has always sided with Pakistan and acted against Indian interests. Given the fact that the US needs help from a country that uses terrorists as instruments of state policy to act against another terrorist group, in a country that itself is run by a bunch of terrorists who are playing at being diplomats, this might never materialize and might remain confined to a just a report in Congress.
Given the recent chill in relations between the West and China, India and China, as well as between Japan and China, we might well see the Five Eyes expand to Seven Eyes, or perhaps a Five Eyes +2 or Five Eyes +3 in the near future. Be Just Might
The Five Eyes and any new partners, will certainly have a important role to play in the geostrategic game of chess (or is it Chinese Checkers) between the giants.
Join five eyes clearly the only way to keep the dragon greed, India can keep PLA on bay by assisted with USA advanced surveillance strategy.
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