There is general consensus among political observers that the five-day visit of the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has been a success, in spite of controversies. She signed two agreements with India, the End-User Monitoring Agreement (EUMA) for defence equipment and technology and a Technology Safeguards Agreement on space cooperation. These are likely to open up vast areas of cooperation in the field of cooperation in defence and space and satellite launch. This together with the already under implementation Nuclear Agreement 123, and the decision announced during her visit that two sites have been earmarked for setting up nuclear rectors by American companies, could herald a new era of relations between the two countries.
The courting India began during the Administration of Bill Clinton. This was taken forward by President Bush marked by a landmark agreement on nuclear cooperation. Now, the third successive Administration, the Obama Administration will take forward the ties and herein lies the significance of Hilary’s visit.
Observers note that one of the objectives of her visit “was to bring India in line with the US view on such crucial issues as climate change, trade and disarmament and to take it away from the alternatives India is trying its hand on like BRIC, IBSA, G-20, G-7 and NAM. She tried to entice India away from these forums by proposing a strategic dialogue consisting of “five pillars” ranging from non-proliferation and climate change to trade investment and agriculture”.
The other objective was to translate the strategic partnership with India into commercial gains for American businesses. It is understood that Ms Clinton was able to extract promise for US nuclear companies to set up nuclear rectors at two sites in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The American arms industry will also be lookijg forward to cash on the US advantage consequent to the signing of the nuclear agreement.
A key result of the visit is the assurance by Ms Clinton to implement the Indo-US nuclear deal in both letter ad spirit, and not withhold transfer of attendant reprocessing and enrichment technology (RET) would put to rest persistent speculation of late that the Obama Administration is having second thoughts about RET transfer to India. At the G-8 summit in Italy, there were reports of moves to tighten the nuclear non-proliferation regime, with media reports suggesting India would not after all be able to access RET from abroad. Such fears can now safely be put behind.
The most controversial fallout of visit was the End-Use Monitoring Agreement (EUMA) and the Technology Safeguards Agreement. The EUMA was, however, opposed in Parliament with the Opposition walking out amid cries of sell-out. Even segments of the Congress Party distanced themselves from the decision to sign the EUMA, fearing that the party could pay a heavy price for them in the coming Assembly elections.
The charge against the agreement is that it has many clauses that impose restrictions on what India can do with the equipment purchased from the US. For instance, it cannot modify or upgrade or get it serviced from companies other than the Americans. The Navy chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta is on record as having said, in the end-user agreement that “there are certain things we cannot agree. As a sovereign nation, we cannot accept intrusiveness into our system”.
It is clear that the EUMA is designed to ensure that America has leverage over recipient country. Another concern is that the signing of such agreement will also have other defence suppliers like Russia making demands to sign a similar agreement given the fact that seventy per cent of Indian military hardware is sourced from Russia.
The External Affairs Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna tried to convince the agitated members that the EUMA was being earlier applied to defence deals on a case by case basis and what is now being done is to sign an umbrella agreement which would apply to all such deals. Neutral observers note that in spite of the strong opposition, India cannot be expected to be given a waiver from a requirement that is embedded in American law. The EUMA is designed to facilitate the high-end dual use technology transfer to India. Under US laws, no country can get access to high technology of dual use without a EUMA agreement. Since 1998, Indian companies had had to sign stand-alone end-use monitoring pacts to source advanced America technology. Now the EUMA has become an umbrella agreement that covers the trade of all cutting-edge technology from the US for a whole range of applications. Countries like Russia ad France too have agreements with India to prevent sensitive equipment from being passed on to other nations.
India has in the past signed at least three defence deals that contained ed-user provision and even gave US inspectors the right to on-site inspection of weapon systems. It was in 2002 that for the first time the ed user clause was accepted by the then BJP-led Government when it signed the deal to purchase ANTPQ 37 Firefinder Weapon locating Radars from the US. It carried a provision that gave permission to USI inspectors to carry out “compliance assistance visits” on their locations.
