India to seal security deal next month

Having overcome initial qualms about joining the US-led Container Security Initiative, India is now moving fast and will be sending an inter...

Having overcome initial qualms about joining the US-led Container Security Initiative, India is now moving fast and will be sending an inter-ministerial team to Washington in the first week of March to work out the modalities and confirm Indian participation.

The initiative, which includes screening US-bound containers at ports of origin to make sure that a “dirty bomb” does not get smuggled in, was first frowned upon because of fears that the US would have a lot of say in Indian port security. It has now been clarified that the US will only have an advisory role and some basic rules-of-thumb are being put in place.

Eager to speed up the process, the India is sending a team that will be led by a senior Ministry of External Affairs official. It will include representatives from the Commerce Ministry, Customs and security agencies and will visit a US port during its stay.

The team would get a glimpse of the measures that would have to be installed at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), which has been chosen for the pilot project. Sources said JNPT was picked because 58 per cent of container traffic moving out of India is from this port. The idea is to first to launch the programme at JNPT and then gradually replicate it elsewhere.

While one of the CSI conditions is that officials of the US Customs and Border Patrol will be posted at JNPT, sources said, this will be a reciprocal step where India can also post its officials at US ports. However, Canada and Japan are the only two countries to have exercised this right with the US, which has signed the CSI with 37 countries till date.

What JNPT will certainly have to instal is sophisticated pre-screening equipment. Meanwhile, preliminary discussions with Washington have eased fears that India would be compromising on its sovereign rights in any way. Some basic pointers emerging are:

• Jurisdiction authority will be that of the local government

• Pre-screening will be done by Indian personnel

• US officials will have access to findings but will not operate facility

Story continues below this ad

• US officials posted at the port will have to identify specific parameters like the container number, the bill of lading details, etc., in their request for pre-screening

• Rules of security of the local government will be followed

Besides this, sources said, there are collateral benefits as the equipment will also be available for Indian agencies to screen incoming containers. An Indian team that went last year to Hong

Kong to witness the functioning of CSI was informed that more than 50 per cent usage of the equipment was to screen incoming containers.

Story continues below this ad

Given that only 14 per cent container traffic from JNPT is headed for the US, the facility could prove to be extremely useful for Indian investigative agencies like the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.