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Journalism of Courage
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s breakfast meeting with US President George Bush on September 21 received a big boost today as Washington removed the Indian Space Research Organisation from its prohibitive list, even as New Delhi kept its word with Pakistan by liberalising visas for accredited journalists as part of a more open visa regime.
The decision to liberalise visas, also for doctors, academicians, professors and Pak nationals above 65 years, comes a day before the PM8217;s visit to London and New York where he will also meet the Pakistani president on the margins of the UN General Assembly.
Sources pointed out that the Prime Minister had promised that he would like the Foreign Office to 8216;8216;think out of the box.8217;8217; The decision to allow a freer movement of journalists is part of that scheme, the sources said.
In the last few days, National Security Adviser J N Dixit has met his Pak counterpart Tariq Aziz in Dubai, their fourth meeting since the Congress government took over. This encounter as well as the composite dialogue review will feed into the Manmohan Singh-Musharraf meeting on September 24 in New York.
The US move, which lifts sanctions against ISRO, significantly elevates the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership NSSP in another way: It modifies US export licensing policies to a non-NPT signatory like India, permitting exports to safeguarded nuclear power plants, such as Tarapur.
This is a major achievement by the Bush administration and, in effect, breaks the back of the rigid strictures adopted by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, that has prohibited any nuclear cooperation with India because it has refused to sign the NPT.
In return, New Delhi is believed to have promised not to pass on the high-technology items transferred to India, whether in space, nuclear issues or missile defence, to third countries.
8216;8216;Since January, the two governments have worked closely together to conclude Phase One of the NSSP. This has included implementation of measures to address proliferation concerns and ensure compliance with US export controls,8217;8217; the statement from Washington said.
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Strategic partnership:
first step, next step |
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After talks between Foreign Secy Shyam Saran and US officials, including Under-Secy of State Marc Grossman: |
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For the first time as well, nuclear cooperation between India and the US has moved beyond the areas of nuclear safety, thereby closing the chapter of recrimination and acrimony that characterised the relationship after New Delhi went nuclear in 1998.
The Indo-US partnership in nuclear power plants is likely to open the floodgates for other countries like France, which have been keen on supplying New Delhi with nuclear technology for its IAEA safeguarded power plants. The first to have done so was Russia in 1997, when it invoked a 1988 agreement to build civilian nuclear power plants at Kudamkulam.
The NSSP announcement comes a day after India8217;s Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen presented his credentials to President Bush, indicating that he has been able to push Washington into putting some teeth into the NSSP.
Space is one of the 8216;8216;quartet8217;8217; issues on the NSSP8212;the others are civilian nuclear energy, transfer of high-technology and missile defence8212;and ISRO is now expected to be liberated from the sanctions that had been placed on it by the US for many years.
The fact that ISRO and NASA did a big conference in Bangalore together a couple of months ago indicates not only a significant degree of trust between the two nations, analysts said, but also that ISRO would now be able to import US components in the launching of satellites, including for third countries.
Meanwhile, New Delhi8217;s decision to allow Pak journalists, who have accredited for only three years, is likely to be received with some enthusiasm in that country. External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh, seconded by Dixit, had made that promise about two weeks ago at a function organised by the Pakistan-based SAFMA journalist organisation.
New Delhi fulfills its promise today8212;significantly, on the eve of the PM8217;s first major visit abroad.
