September 20, 2003	Saturday	Rajab 22, 1424

WASHINGTON, Sept 19: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is expected to sign a major agreement on Indo-US high-tech cooperation when he meets President George Bush next week, diplomatic sources told Dawn on Friday.

The sources said that three senior Indian officials arrived quietly in Washington this week to work out the details of the agreement.

The Americans hope that such a deal may soften India’s aversion to sending troops to Iraq.

President Bush and Prime Minister Vajpayee are scheduled to meet on Sept 24 in New York where both will be attending the annual UN General Assembly, a day after the US president meets President Pervez Musharraf.

In July this year, India’s top policy-making body, the Cabinet Committee on Security, decided that it was not in its national interest to send troops to Iraq. And on Sept 11 an Indian official told reporters in New Delhi that India would not change its position on this issue even if the UN Security Council endorsed the US request for sending international peacekeepers to Iraq.

But on Sept 17, two days before his expected arrival in New York, Prime Minister Vajpayee said that India had not yet taken a final decision on this issue. “I do not know what the UN Security Council is up to. India will take a clear decision once the UN Security Council’s stand is known,” he told reporters in Ankara, Turkey.

India and the US, the sources said, are also focusing on what they describe as “the trinity of issues” — high-tech trade, civilian nuclear energy and cooperation in space programmes.

The need to expand cooperation in these three fields was first discussed in November 2001 when Mr Vajpayee met President Bush in Washington. Two major meetings took place between National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and Condeleezza Rice to further define what India wanted and what the US could offer.

Indian officials say that increased cooperation on the “trinity of issues” would give substance to the idea of a “strategic partnership” with India Mr Bush first talked about in 2001.

The current round of talks is a continuation of US Deputy National Security Adviser Steve Hadley’s sudden visit to New Delhi last week. Sources say Mr Hadley had rushed to India to ensure progress before the Bush-Vajpayee meeting.