India, US to hold talks on hi-tech trade

Monday, 11 November 2002, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: A senior US official arrived here Monday for "high technology dialogue" with Indian official that is expected to boost bilateral trade ties and lead to lifting of sanctions on sale of dual use technology items. Assistant Secretary for Commerce Kenneth Juster will hold talks with officials of the ministries of commerce and industry, defence and external affairs on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Gordon Duguid, spokesman for the US embassy here. "The dialogue will cover hi-tech trade and export control," he said He declined to go into details, saying the embassy does not comment on talks before they take place. Officials said Juster would call on External Affair Minister Yashwant Sinha and hold talks with Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, besides top officials of commerce and industry and defence ministries. The talks are expected to pave the way for the two countries to elevate their growing multilateral cooperation to transfer of technology, ending as far as India is concerned the strict non-proliferation controls put in place by Washington in the wake of the end of the Cold War. Indian officials said the Juster's talks are expected to lead to setting up of a high technology cooperation group to facilitate sale and transfer of hi-tech items from the US to India. Following India's nuclear tests in May 1998, a series of US sanctions against Indian entities had automatically kicked into place on the ground that some of the items they imported could have "dual use" covering civilian and military applications. Officials said the new high technology trade would seek to update and streamline a 1984 bilateral memorandum of understanding on hi-tech transfer. Indian analysts said the US decision to hold hi-tech dialogue with India reflected US President George Bush's desire to forge strategic ties with India, which is seen as a growing economic and military power. A paper on the National Security Strategy for the United States of America issued by the administration in September that had Bush's personal stamp had described India as "one of the great democratic powers of 21st century." It emphasized that India and the US were the world's "two largest democracies ... committed to political freedom" and to common national interests in creating a stable Asia, fighting terrorism and enhancing the free flow of commerce. Analysts said the lifting of the ban on sale of dual use technology would be a boost to Indian industries, which had so far been denied access to such high technology. India-US cooperation already cover diplomatic collaboration in a wide area, counter terrorism efforts, defence and military-to-military cooperation, intelligence exchange, law enforcement, development assistance, joint scientific and health projects, including on HIV/AIDs, and global environment.
Source: IANS