Sachin Parashar   

Elevated Status Will Put To Rest Speculation That Ties Were Hit Under Trump Admin

The US decision to move India into tier-1 of licence exception for export of sensitive defence and high-end technologies is seen as a reaffirmation of support for India’s Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership bid.

India is hoping that the move by the US will also put to rest speculation that India-US ties have been marred by the unpredictable nature of the Trump administration. Washington’s decision is its clearest signal yet to China that it believes India deserves a seat at the high-table of global nuclear commerce because of its unblemished nonproliferation credentials.

There is a strong political message in this as a perception was gaining ground that US support to India’s case for NSG membership had been diluted under Trump, or at least it is not as strong as it was under Barack Obama. India will hope China will review its opposition to India’s presence in NSG since the US decision indicates its preparedness to take a long view of ties with Delhi. In an official statement, India described the US move as a logical culmination to India's designation as a major defence partner of the US and a reaffirmation of India’s impeccable record as a responsible member of the concerned multilateral export control regimes.

“This step will further facilitate India-US trade and technology collaboration in defence and high technology areas. We look forward to the US side operationalising the decision at an early date,’’ said a press release issued by the MEA. Only US NATO allies and countries which are members of all export control regimes have found their way into the Strategic Trade Authorisation (STA)-1 category of the US export control regime. STA-1 allows export of controlled items bypassing the need for a “transaction-specific’’ licence.

“This is an exception which the US has made for India and is reaffirmation of India’s role in multilateral export control regimes. There’s a big political statement coming out of this as India becomes a serious player in the global supply chain of sensitive defence technology,’’ said a top government source, adding India was no longer at the receiving end of the US export control regime.

According to the US, STA authorises unlicensed export of many items on the EAR's (Export Administration Regulations) Commerce Control List (CCL) to a group of 36 countries in western Europe and other “key allies’’ like Japan and South Korea. According to an Indian government estimate, if India had been elevated to the STA-1 category seven years ago, it would have resulted in additional trade worth $10 billion between the two countries.

The timing of the exception couldn’t have been better for India as it comes ahead of the 2 + 2 dialogue scheduled for early September. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defence secretary James Mattis are expected to travel to India for meetings with their Indian counterparts Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman.

As reported in TOI on Monday, US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross told a gathering of business leaders at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum that the move to grant STA-I status to India reflects its efforts to improve its own export-control regime, its adherence to multilateral export rules and its growing status as a US defence partner. Delhi hitherto had a STA-2 designation given to seven countries, including Israel besides South Africa, and Taiwan. China and Pakistan, India’s two primary adversaries, are not in the Strategic Trade Authorisation (STA) License Exception list. “It (India’s elevation to STA-1) is a sign of trust not only in the relationship but also on India’s capabilities as an economy and as security partner, because it also presupposes that India has the multilateral export control regime in place,” Indian ambassador to US, Navtej Singh Sarna, said.

Sachin Paraand Chidanand.Rajghatta TNN

New Delhi/Washington:

Courtesy: Times of India: 1 Aug 2018