Sign NPT, says friend Primakov

Then Prime Minister Vajpayee, reacting to the possibility of such a partnership, for the first time publicly admitted that New Delhi, indeed, had a problem with Beijing. 8220;As far as China is concerned,8221; Vajpayee said, 8220;India is trying to improve its relations and is going in the direction of normalisingthem.8221;

Primakov8217;s remark on asking India to join the NPT, came early in the day in a meeting with External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh. It indicated the bitter truth that despite its unhappiness with the US flexing muscle over Iraq, Moscow is in no position today but to agree with Washington on various issues. Clearly, one such issue is the need to keep intact the global nuclear regime.

Singh, in response, is believed to have explained India8217;s visceral attitude to the NPT since 1968, when Mrs Gandhi refused to accede because it was a blatantly unfair and discriminatory club. He told Primakov that India may contemplate joining the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTBT, 8220;but we will never join the NPT.8221;

Highly placed sources said it seemed as if Primakov needed to get his moralistic position on the nuclear issue off his chest. Once that was done, his conversations with Singh and other interlocutors in the capital, including Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, were much more cordial.

8220;Unlike the lasttime8221; when Primakov met Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra in Moscow soon after India8217;s nuclear tests and gave him a mouthful over the government8217;s need to go nuclear, 8220;today8217;s remarks were not as strongly stated,8221; the sources added.

At the short press conference too at the end of the ceremony where seven agreements were signed, Primakov was quite eloquent. He talked in terms of the multi-faceted character of the relationship which was 8220;growing,8221; and pointed out that he and Vajpayee had decided that they would make 8220;strict supervision8221; of progress.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin would still make his visit to India next year, he added, a visit which was intended to strengthen an evolving strategic partnership between the two countries.

Asked about his morning proposal on the possibility of creating a 8220;strategic alliance8221; between India, Russia and China, Primakov said he had been misunderstood. 8220;It was not a formal proposal8230;what I said was that such a partnership between three major powerswould promote greater stability in the region and the world.8221;

At the end of a packed day, the two Prime Ministers met for about an hour without aides this evening, breaking off intermittently to confer with their respective delegations. Foreign Secretary K. Raghunath, underlining the importance of the visit, said it should be viewed in terms of a benchmark which 8220;sets the growth of the relationship for some time to come.8221;Seven agreements were signed in the presence of the two premiers, with the pact on long-term military-technical cooperation until the year 2010 cornering the limelight. Defence Minister George Fernandes and Russian Trade minister G. Gabuniya did the signature honours.

The element of surprise came at the banquet dinner thrown by the Prime Minister for Primakov. At the end of his thanksgiving speech, the Russian Prime Minister handed over a gift parcel to Vajpayee.