New Delhi, February 6
The strategic ties between India and the USA reached a new high as the two countries yesterday signed an agreement to boost high-technology trade, giving India the privilege of being the first country with which Washington has entered into such an agreement.

More importantly, Washington has sent signals that it intends to further revise its Entity List, wherein it continues to place scores of Indian organisations which were denied access to American high technology and equipment in the wake of May, 1999, Pokhran-II nuclear tests by India.

Diplomatic sources said today that in the coming months, the Entity List may be scrapped for India. The list has been one of the important irritants in Indo-US relations. Significantly, the two governments plan to convene the first meeting of the India-US High Technology Cooperation Group in the near future to develop a schedule of activities to further the Statement of Principles for US-India High Technology Commerce.

The Statement of Principles, signed in Washington yesterday by US Undersecretary of Commerce Kenneth I Juster and Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, is a significant achievement in fulfilling the commitment made in November, 2001, by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, that will allow New Delhi access to high -speed computers and dual-use technologies.

American officials here described the Statement of Principles for Indo-US High Technology Commerce as a “breakthrough” which would boost bilateral high-technology trade between the two countries, including trade in dual-use goods and technologies. The agreement would help remove structural obstacles in the transfer of technologies and would enable India to get technologies for space, nuclear and civil purposes.

The Statement of Principles seeks commitment by the two countries to prevent proliferation of sensitive goods and technologies and notes the need to facilitate high-technology trade, consistent with international laws and national security requirements. It also recognises the untapped potential for high-technology commerce, the need to address economic and systemic issues inhibiting such trade (including tariff and non-tariff barriers) and to increase the role of the private sector in generating high-technology commerce.

According to American officials, the new accord “really engages the issue of high technology across the board. Everything from raising capital to creating new opportunities for Indian and American companies to collaborate and fresh opportunities for cooperation in research.”