Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Barack Obama at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Sunday. — Sondeep Shankar
Deal is done, announces foreign secretary Sujatha Singh: After talks between visiting US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India and the United States on Sunday managed to “break the logjam” that had existed since 2008 for operationalising their landmark civil nuclear agreement, with an announcement by foreign secretary Sujata Singh that “the deal is done”. In what President Obama called a “breakthrough”, the two sides have resolved key hurdles on the liability of suppliers of nuclear reactors in the event of an accident and the tracking of fuel supplied by the US and other countries for its proposed nuclear plants. “We have broken the logjam of the past few years. We have reached an agreement. The deal is done,” foreign secretary Sujatha Singh announced after extended discussions between the two leaders lasting over three hours. In another major step on cooperation in the defence sector, the two countries renewed an enhanced Defence Framework Agreement for the next 10 years. Under the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative, four projects were also agreed on as “pathfinder projects”, which are the “next generation Raven Mini UAVs, roll on and roll off kits for C-130 J-Super Hercules military transport aircraft, mobile electric hybrid power source and Uniform Integrated Protection Ensemble Increment 2”. Both also agreed on a working group to explore aircraft carrier technology besides designing and development of jet engine technology. India and the US decided to resume talks on the bilateral investment treaty during discussions between Prime Minister Modi and US President Obama, who lauded reforms undertaken by the new government. The White House said the understanding on the civil nuclear programme resolves US concerns on both tracking and liability. “In our judgment, the Indians have moved sufficiently on these issues to give us assurances,” US ambassador to India Richard Verma told US journalists. Mr Verma explained that it will still be for US companies to assess the market and decide whether to partake in India’s nuclear programme. Neither country needs to take any legislative action to complete the agreements reached between the two leaders. As Prime Minister Modi described it, the nuclear deal was the centrepiece of the Obama-Modi discussions, given its contentious nature, but the two leaders reached an understanding on a number of other areas, including defence. In breaking the logjam, experts feel the Modi government has managed to achieve what the previous Manmohan Singh government could not. The foreign secretary said assurances were given to the US side on both the liability clause and tracking issues. “The liability provisions and administrative arrangements finalised under the 123 Agreement (tracking) are consistent with our bilateral legal arrangements and contracts, IAEA safeguards and international laws and obligations,” Ms Singh said. “The civil nuclear agreement was the centrepiece of our transformed relationship, which demonstrated new trust. It also created new economic opportunities and expanded our options for clean energy. In the course of the past four months, we have worked with a sense of purpose to move it forward. I am pleased that six years after we signed our bilateral agreement, we are moving towards commercial cooperation, consistent with our law, our international legal obligations, and technical and commercial viability,” Prime Minister Modi said. The deal on nuclear cooperation and other areas was clinched between the two leaders after discussions spread over three hours at the delegation level as well as one-on-one talks, besides a tête-à-tête on the lawns of Hyderabad House, reflecting the warm personal chemistry between the two leaders. On defence cooperation, Mr Modi said: “Today, we have also decided to take our growing defence cooperation to a new level. We have agreed, in principle, to pursue co-development and co-production of specific advanced defence projects.” He added this will help upgrade the country’s domestic defence industry and expand India’s manufacturing sector. He also said both countries will explore cooperation in other areas of advanced defence technologies. “We have renewed our Defence Framework Agreement. We will deepen our cooperation on maritime security,” he said. The new framework will enhance the bilateral defence partnership by stepping up joint military exercises and in-depth intelligence-sharing, maritime security efforts, among other things, besides giving a strong push for joint- development and production of high-end defence gear. President Obama said: “We agreed to deepen our defence and security cooperation... And in a major step forward for our relationship, defence technology and trade initiative will allow us to jointly develop and produce defence technologies,” he said. Foreign secretary Sujata Singh said both countries had also “agreed on a working group to explore aircraft carrier technology, sharing, design and also development of jet engine technology”. Asked for details, Indian ambassador to Washington S. Jaishankar said all four projects involve joint development and joint production. “Two of these are with American companies. Two of them with US governments. They have to work out the modalities because they just had a DTTI working group meeting before the visit,” he said. The ambassador noted that the purpose of DTTI was to identify technologies that were unique and which were viable to produce. He said the identified projects are “called pathfinder projects because experience of this will guide us on how we take this forward”. On the working group for jet engines, he said both sides had a discussion under DTTI and have decided “to explore the development of jet engines in India”. He said it was much broader than the Kaveri jet engine that India was already working on. Replying to a query about the difference between the existing defence framework and the new one, he said India has “negotiated a new” agreement for the next 10 years. “DTTI is an initiative which is within the defence framework. It is a new initiative. It was announced a few years ago but it has really become operational now. The big change is that we have taken that big step towards operationalising an initiative, and this case specifically identifying projects and agreeing on important areas where we will have working groups,” he said. The significant project under DTTI is the plans for joint development and production of next generation Raven Mini UAVs, a device which the Indian Army is eyeing. If the joint manufacturing of the UAV happens, then India would be able to get a slice of the multi-billion order book for the world’s most advanced hand-launched drone. The drone proved to be a great success for US forces in Afghanistan as it gives air observations up to a distance of 10 km, which makes it possible to increase situational awareness. Defence sources said the roll on and roll off kits for C-130 aircraft deals with specialised plates and technology for loading and loading off cargo. Mobile Electric Hybrid Power Source is conceived to be a non-grid-tied smart power system with output ranging from 300W to 800kW. This was also effectively put into use by the US Army in Afghanistan. Uniform Integrated Protection Ensemble Increment 2 refers to a more advanced protection gear for soldiers against chemical and biological warfare. On steps to promote clean energy, Mr Obama said the two countries had agreed to make “concrete progress” in phasing out major greenhouse gases, apart from expanding solar energy initiatives and launching joint projects to improve air quality in Indian cities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also ruled out India coming under pressure from any country on the global climate pact, as India and the US announced steps to boost cooperation in clean energy and to confront climate change issues. Speaking on the breakthrough in operationalising of the Indo-US nuclear deal, President Obama said, “Today, we achieved a breakthrough understanding on two issues that were holding up our advances on civil nuclear cooperation and we are committed to moving towards full implementation and this is an important step that shows how we can work together to elevate our relationship.”Source: The Asian Age
