India to US: Ease hi-tech sanctions
In the run-up to US President Barack Obama’s visit here in November, India on Wednesday pressed the US for easing trade in dual-use technologies and conveyed its unease over the shifting power games in Afghanistan. NSA Shivshankar Menon on Wednesday met his US counterpart James Jones and held wide-ranging discussions
with a view to firming up key deliverables during Mr Obama’s presidential visit later in 2010. Mr Jones also called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and conveyed Mr Obama’s greetings to the Prime Minister and the resolve of the administration to take India-US relations to new heights, said reliable sources. Mr Menon and Mr Jones also discussed a host of regional issues, including the shifting power equations in Afghanistan and the US sanctions against Tehran which New Delhi feels can hurt its energy security.
Mr Menon is understood to have pointed out that many Indian private and public sector entities continue to face technology sanctions even two years after India and the US signed a landmark nuclear deal in October 2008. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Barc) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) are among Indian entities that continue to suffer US technology sanctions. Mr Jones assured that the US was looking at removing these sanctions, but has to find ways of doing so within the framework of US domestic laws, which contain stringent criteria governing the transfer of such technologies to other countries.
There could be some tangible movement in this direction ahead of Mr Obama’s visit, sources said.
—IANS
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