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India, US strike agreement to open up defence ties
NDTV Correspondent, Monday July 20, 2009, New Delhi

AP image

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister S M Krishna on Monday at the end of which, the two countries unveiled a new strategic dialogue.

Both the countries came to an agreement, which opens up billions of dollars in defence sales to India. The end-user pact basically involves American monitoring of their military sales to ensure they are being used for the right purpose.

Sophisticated planes, radars, and other crucial military hardware will now be available to India. India also announced the two sites for American nuclear reactors.

"We have been told that sites for two nuclear parks earmarked for us," said Hillary.

Addressing a joint press conference after the meeting with Hillary, Krishna said that the talks covered bilateral ties, adding that India and the US regard each other as world powers.

He said that new forum for meaningful dialogue has been created, which would cover climate change, disarmament and non-proliferation.

Talking to mediapersons, Hillary Clinton said that the US was committed to strong partnership with India.

She said that the US has agreed on five pillars in the joint statement.

Hillary also said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been invited to Washington on November 24. Singh would be the first official guest to be invited to the US by the Obama Administration.

The US Secretary of State further said that there is no difference between India and the US over Iran issue.

Hillary and Krishna, earlier on Monday, signed an agreement on science and technology.
 
 
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Posted by Abhijeet Banerjee on Jul 21, 2009
After the so-called historic visit of the UPA followed by enormous media celebration as well, there was euphoria across the various sections of the socio-economic structure of the country. The euphoria was to enter into a radically new socio-economic order, by leveraging on the very different political order that resulted after the elections. Though a large section of the media did what it does best - spreading a sense of feel good for the grand old party - in accordance with its deep-rooted political ideology. Frankly speaking, despite being on the right side of the political spectrum, even I had a sense of hope for an accelerated reforms program and new socio-political mindset emerging. Though, I knew India's problems go beyond politics and there was no scope for radical improvements. Four major events have clearly showcased why India will not be able to usher into a new assertive, reforms environment. Union and Rail budget were timid, biased and usual rather than bold and path-breaking. This was followed by Indo-Pak Joint Statement and Indo-US end-user monitoring pact (EUMA) that were again unassertive and simply reinforced India's fundamentally flawed DNA continuing through the centuries. The biggest irony is - would the 1.15 billion population be able to assert its rightful claim of historic outcomes (after a 'historic' win), or would we continue remain in our chronic slumber? In fact, that brings us to the central moot point - Apart from oft-repeated lack of education, poverty and social disparity, is there any other structural and fundamental problem with the Indian approach? Or simply speaking, why is India so mediocre?
Posted by Dr Harish Pillai on Jul 21, 2009
I was watching the Parliament debate today and was suprised to notice the lack of knowledge of most of the opposition MP's on the subject of end user verification. They have forgotten that it is a mandatory US domestic law designed to protect their IPR especially for dual use equipment. There have been many instances of countries trying to reverse engineer technology. India as a sovereign nation has amended this stipulation by insisting on the right to decide timing, conditions and location of such inspections. By not signing such an agreement we will be denying our armed forces the choice of the 'Best' possible hardware that money can buy. Altenatively the country should revamp the DRDO and have mission related milestones for major projects such as in ISRO. The MP's should read the CAG reports carefully on this subject. This will hopefully make India self sufficient in all military hardware equirements and create huge employment opportunities within the country. Mr Yashwant Sinha -you seem to be opposing constructive ideas just for the sake of opposition. It is similar to your tragic opposition to the Indo US nuclear deal.
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