To put N-firewalls at ports, Delhi looks to join US-led programme

While Intelligence agencies continue to retain some of their principal objections on allowing US Customs and Border Protection officials to be stationed at Indian ports, sources said, the programme has certain inherent benefits as a counter-terrorism measure on which there is a broad agreement within the government.

This issue has figured in interactions with the US. And it may be noted that Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran will be in the US for a meeting of the High Technology Cooperation Group on Wednesday, in which his counterpart is US Under Secretary of Commerce Kenneth Juster.

This will also be followed by a meeting of the NSSP Implementation Group headed by Joint Secretary (USC) S. Jaishankar on the Indian side while US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca will head the US delegation. The group held its first meeting in New Delhi last month.

Unlike the Proliferation Security Initiative, which is politically far more sensitive, the CSI is more widely accepted and has the sanction of the World Customs Organisation which on June 28, 2002, passed a resolution enabling countries to develop container security programmes in line with the CSI.

The initiative, sources said, provides for the first time a co-ordinated programme to tackle the threat of containers being used by terrorists to plant a ‘‘dirty bomb’’. More importantly, India’s consent will have a positive bearing in taking forward the second phase of the NSSP.

The programme involves exchange of Customs officials and technology to enable effective screening of containers at foreign ports before they can reach the destination. This essentially translates into:

• Targeting containers that pose a risk through intelligence and automated information.

• Pre-screening these containers at port of departure.

• Deploying quick detection technology at ports of participant countries. * Use of smarter, tamper-evident containers.

India is now in a position to join Phase-II of the CSI which seeks to expand beyond the 20 ports identified by the US in the first phase. Already over 30 ports have been included in the CSI list and ports in South Asia like Colombo are on the verge of becoming part of the initiative.

It’s learnt that the NSC Secretariat had taken a favourable view of particpating in the initiative. Subsequently, the Ministry of Shipping was made the nodal ministry for co-ordinating efforts among other agencies to push the proposal further.

At an inter-ministerial meeting in December 2003, chaired by Secretary, Shipping, it was felt that India would benefit by joining the programme which could qualitatively transform the technology used for detection in Indian ports. Also, it will speed up the automation drive and bring Indian ports at par with other international ports.

However, sources said, intelligence agencies had their reservations on giving access to US officials to Indian ports.

This was buttressed by the argument that the Customs department had also undertaken a pilot project on installing hi-tech pre-screening devices at major container ports in the country.

Despite these claims, the government is likely to take a broader view of the issue given the kind of positive spin-offs this may have on movement of Indian containers and, thus, trade. Moreover, Indian agencies too will benefit from the intelligence sharing among CSI participants.