Pranab hints at 145;enhanced146; trade

The UPA Government has evolved an early, unwritten policy of having enhanced trade with countries with which it will be signing major deals ...

The UPA Government has evolved an early, unwritten policy of having enhanced trade with countries with which it will be signing major deals for military as well as civilian equipment. Giving an indication of this, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told The Indian Express that such a practice was being followed by several other countries and that he has held discussions with, among others, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on the subject.

8216;8216;It is not as if we will be looking for a quid pro quo on every deal,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;But if we make bulk purchases from a country, say even for buying airplanes for Indian Airlines, we can export our goods to that country. We can also sometimes create some sort of goodwill price to support us in certain international forums.8217;8217;

During discussions, he said, the Prime Minister indicated he, too, was keen on 8216;8216;exploring the possibility8217;8217; of increased trade with such countries.

The Defence Minister said he had been thinking on these lines but cautioned that a fixed mechanism may not be possible and that concrete results may not be immediately visible.

8216;8216;It is not possible to concretise such things or to link one transaction with another. I cannot tell a country that I am buying aircraft from you so you should buy some quantum of goods,8217;8217; he elaborated.8216;8216;But when a possibility arises, they should remember they sold certain equipment to us. Secondly, the goodwill created can get reflected in future policy when we require that country8217;s support or assistance in certain matters.8217;8217;

Mukherjee said it would be wrong to imply that the Government was thinking of such a policy at a time when the Ministry of Defence was finalising a record number of Defence deals. He said, 8216;8216;The word huge is a relative term and many of the contracts were already in the works. There cannot be any fixed targets. It may happen that a bunch of procurements may take place in one year but every year, the same number of aircraft may not be delivered.8217;8217;

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More