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Agni II: US may reinforce sanctions against India

C K Arora in Washington

The United States may further tighten the implementation of the 11-month-old nuclear-related economic sanctions against India in protest against its test-firing of the Agni II ballistic missile on Sunday, belying hopes of their early withdrawal.

An indication to this effect was given by Raymond Jones, the division chief for technology licencing in the US commerce department, at a meeting of the Indian American Forum for Political Education.

Replying to questions from the participants, he said the Agni II test, coming after the series of nuclear tests, would probably harden the view of the officers responsible for granting licences for exports to India. ''It will make matters worse,'' he said, treating missile development more serious than nuclear weapons.

He said it would also affect the process of reviewing the sanctions that India had attracted under the Glenn Amendment, an US non-proliferation law, after the May 1998 nuclear tests.

Jones said the US had denied 400 to 500 import licences to India since May 1998. Some 700 Indian applications are pending in his department. In 95 per cent of the cases, licences were being denied. The threshold for granting licences would be further lowered after Sunday's Agni test, he added.

He, however, conceded that the impact on overall Indo-US trade was small -- to the extent of nine to 10 per cent.

He put the US sanctions in two categories -- those mandated by the Glenn Amendment and those of discretionary nature. Some of the sanctions were lifted last year. However, the discretionary curbs remained intact.

The official said the withdrawal of sanctions would depend on the success of the non-proliferation dialogue between India and the US.

Earlier, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs Karl F Inderfurth agreed with Democratic Congressman James Mcdermott who described the May nuclear tests as ''speed bumps'' on the road for better India-US relations. ''We want a broader relationship with India and we are not yet there,'' he added.

Referring to the no-going non-proliferation dialogue between Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Minister for External Affairs Jaswant Singh, he said they were trying to find a way to harmonise relations, taking into account the respective security concerns of the two countries.

He, however, said the progress made so far had been in the form of declaratory steps. ''We hope we will go beyond declarations in phase III. We are still in phase II in the progress of relations,'' he added.

Inderfurth appreciated the fact that India's security concerns beyond the region. ''We hope India will be able to move forward with Pakistan,'' in keeping with the Lahore spirit. The US hoped that a similar process will begin with China, he added.

UNI

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