November 23, 2001	Friday	Ramazan 7, 1422

NEW DELHI: India and the United States will soon have official level talks on procedural matters pertaining to the transfer of sophisticated technology which will include those that can be used for military and civilian purposes in the nuclear field.

This was stated by Indian prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee in a statement to the parliament on Tuesday. In his statement on his recent visit to the States, the Russian Federation, the UN and the UK, Vajpayee also said that the talks will discuss ways and means of encouraging high level technology transfer which would be facilitated by the lifting of sanctions which had been imposed on such transfer imposed following the Pokhran II nuclear explosions. These had proven greatly irksome to India’s nuclear technology development.

In his statement, Vajpayee also said that the two countries had agreed to broaden bilateral economic dialogue to include energy sectors, environment, bio technology and information technology. Besides, cooperation in space programmes and civilian nuclear safety programmes, are slated to be discussed separately.

All these discussions are a prelude to the visit of US president, George Bush later when there will be a comprehensive political dialogue between him and Vajpayee. To forestall speculation of a possibility of India and the US signing a military alliance, the defence minister has categorically announced no such indication had been made by the US and no such move had been contemplated. There have been talks between the US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and George Fernandes when the idea of enhanced cooperation in military affairs was discussed.

The discussion focussed on reactivizing the defence policy group in the context of the sanctions which had been in operation virtually since 1974 when the first nuclear explosion had been conducted by India in Pokhran. A new defence ministry source said that after the visit of Rumsfeld, “there had been a broad based agreement but the modalities of increasing cooperation will be worked out after the visit of the US commander in chief Pacific Command, admiral Dennis Blair. The defence ministry sources maintain that once the defence policy group is revived it would be only a matter of time before the executive steering committee of the armed forces to decide on joint training and exercises.

The joint chiefs of staff, General Henry Shelton had announced an increase in the number of Indian officials to be invited to the US for training and also that the US administration had increased its spending on international exchange training to accommodate more officers from India.