If Barack Obama disappointed some by not coming out strongly against Pakistan’s role in the Mumbai attacks, he made it up by announcing that more Indian defence and space organisations will be removed from the US export controls — one of the last few vestiges of Washington’s technology-denial regimes targeted at India. In another welcome move, the US has signalled its willingness to endorse India’s membership of certain key multilateral nuclear non-proliferation regimes.
Addressing the Indian and American industry representatives in Mumbai, the US President said, “Today I am pleased to announce that we will work with India to fundamentally reform our control on exports which will allow greater cooperation in the range of high-tech sectors and strengthen our non-proliferation efforts.”
There was no word yet on how quickly the Indian atomic energy organisations will be taken off the US entity list, but the lifting of restrictions on defence and space utilities would have come as a relief for New Delhi, which has argued that India could not be a target of US export controls even as the two countries pursue a strategic partnership.
Mike Froman, the US deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, has told the media in Mumbai that only three Indian entities — Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Hyderabad-based Bharat Dynamics Limited — should be expected to benefit from Mr Obama’s announcement.
Mr Froman announced that the US will support India’s full membership in four multilateral export control regimes — the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Australia Group, and the Wassenaar Arrangement — all of which regulate global commerce in dual-use technologies.
The US is expected to consult with other countries to encourage the evolution of a membership criteria of these regimes consistent with maintaining their core principles. “So as the membership criteria of these four regimes evolves, we intend to support India’s full membership in them,” Mr Froman has said.