M A I N   N E W S

USA concerned over Pak N-plan
Bush accepts PM’s invitation to visit India
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 11
Visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage today stopped short of naming Pakistan a “rogue state” as the Indo-US ties entered a new phase of cooperative relationship in Washington’s endeavour to shape a new global security order.

Talking to newspersons after his 30-minute meeting with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr Armitage, who arrived here as a special envoy of US President George W.Bush after his visit to South Korea and Japan as part of Washington’s process of consultations with its friends and allies, said:”We have questions about Pakistan’s nuclear programme. It is well known and even better known to you. These we refer as hard cases”.

Asked to specify the countries he referred to as “rogue” states, the US Deputy Secretary of State said: “Iraq, Iran, Libya. They are well known as states involved in proliferation. You have some in this neighbourhood. North Korea has also announced that it would continue to export missile technology”.

Elaborating upon the proposed US missile defence programme and emerging international security issues, Mr Armitage said the programme had four facets — non-proliferation, counter-proliferation, limited missile defence, and US willingness to reduce strategic nuclear arsenal “unilaterally, if necessary beyond the levels as envisaged in START II”.

On India’s status in the proposed missile defence paradigm, Mr Armitage said in a significant statement that the plan “ will make unnecessary some states producing their own missiles as a response to a threat from a neighbour”.

The US special envoy, who held wide-ranging talks with not only the Prime Minister but also with Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, said “they (states) would have another option... defence rather than offence”. It is noteworthy that the US President did not ask Mr Armitage to visit Islamabad.

Later, briefing newspersons, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs said Mr Armitage’s visit had also “provided an opportunity to review a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues. Both sides expressed satisfaction at the pace of progress in Indo-US relations since the assumption of office by Mr Bush and reaffirmed their commitment to making them more productive”.

Mr Armitage handed over to Mr Vajpayee a letter from President Bush accepting the Prime Minister’s invitation to visit India, the spokesman said, adding that Mr Bush had conveyed that he looked forward to the visit in the context of efforts to broaden the relationship between the USA and India.

The US President has also conveyed his intention of working closely with the Prime Minister, to promote common interests in Asia and the world, the spokesman said, adding that the US enovy elaborated the outlines of a “new strategic framework”.

The spokesman said the government was looking forward to continuing further such exchanges in future.

As a departure from the norms of the Cold War, the proposed new strategic framework, based on consultation and cooperation rather than confrontation was a welcome development, the spokesman said.

Embarking on a new relationship, India and the USA have discussed a path-breaking security regime for the entire globe.

“We are endeavouring to work out together a totally new security regime which is for the entire globe,” External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters after an extended hour-long meeting with Mr Armitage which was carried over a working lunch.

Emerging from the meeting with Mr Jaswant Singh, Mr Armitage, the first high-ranking official of the Bush administration to visit India, said: “It is the beginning of many consultations and it is the beginning of a new relationship between the USA and India.”

Mr Armitage said he had presented President Bush’s thinking on a new strategic framework which contained many elements, including Washington’s willingness to unilaterally reduce US nuclear arsenals below the levels of START-II.

The entire gamut of bilateral relations came up for review during the parleys between the two.

Mr Jaswant Singh, however, parried a query on whether the issue of lifting US sanctions against India, imposed in the aftermath of the Pokhran nuclear tests, figured during the parleys.

Mr Jaswant Singh said the two sides discussed the “entire range of issues” that had followed upon the initiative taken by President Bush recently “which we welcomed and continue to welcome”.

PM welcomes Bush initiative
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 11
In what seems to be an endorsement of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh’s comments on the Bush administration seeking a steep reduction in the nuclear arsenal, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today welcomed the US initiative.

In his first comments on Mr George W. Bush’s offer last week, the Prime Minister while welcoming the initiative said, “We have never subscribed to the concepts of military dominance or doctrines of mutually assured destruction (MAD). We welcome every move towards lightening the shadow of the nuclear terror under which we live today”.

His remarks came at a function organised here to give awards to defence scientists on the third anniversary of the 1998 Pokhran nuclear blasts today being observed as the National Technology Day.

Mr Vajpayee said, “We believe that a genuine process of consultations, including nuclear and non-nuclear countries and taking into account existing arrangements in the security architecture, can promote the search for a stable new global security framework”.

His remarks assume significance specially as the US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is on an official visit to India. He is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister later.

But the Prime Minister made it clear that India’s “credible minimum nuclear deterrent” was a basic security umbrella which “we owe to our people”.

“India is neither a proliferation threat nor an exporter of sensitive nuclear or missile technology. We have demonstrated that we are a responsible nuclear power.”

Recalling that today was the third anniversary of the day when India conducted its nuclear tests, the Prime Minister lamented “technological denial regimes and sanctions” and urged the scientists to develop afresh the technologies available elsewhere to benefit the defence and security of the country.

Mr Jaswant Singh suggested that the DRDO should not hesitate to short close such programmes that have outlived their relevance in terms of requirements and technological contemporariness.

He said subsequent test flights of the light combat aircraft (LCA) were going on smoothly with all objectives laid down for the first block of flight testing having accomplished.

The Kaveri engine was qualified and integrated as scheduled and the aircraft was inducted into the Air Force after initial operational clearance by the latter half of this decade, he said.

Referring to the problems being faced by the DRDO, he said some of the programmes had suffered unacceptable time overruns. ..Though attempts were being made to have synergy and greater interaction with academia, industry, ordinance factories and consortia, it appeared that due consideration was not given while estimating timeframes for the projects.

The minister said concerted efforts were needed to improve the speed and efficiency with which technology was transferred from laboratory to the production units. “It is vital that the defence technology institutions make better use of all these modern techniques.”

The Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister said self-reliance would continue to be the “mantra to preserve our freedom.”

Listing achievements of scientists and researchers, he said the light combat aircraft (LCA) was about to complete its first block of flights and the technology demonstration process would begin within two to three months. The power plant for LCA Kaveri was also progressing well, he added.

He said the government had taken an initiative to strengthen the industrial component base of the country. “Industry is being assisted to develop micro-electronic components, switches, connectors, and super components.”

“Pak missiles can hit Indian cities”

Washington, May 11
India has been warned of Pakistan’s capability in the long range missiles by former Chief Republican Counsel to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, William Triplett II.

“The intention now appears to be to have missiles capable of attacking space installations along India’s eastern coast,”Mr Triplett said. UNI