Manmohan Singh US Visit

Despite Several MoUs, Key Differences Remain; India, Canada Ink Landmark Nuclear Agreement; India, Russia Nuclear Energy and Arms Sales Deals

The Obama administration has termed the visit of Indian Prime minister manmohan Singh as "historic" and said both nations had some "specific accomplishments." State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters, a week after the Indian leader was accorded a red carpet welcome in the US, "I think we achieved some important agreements, and we signed several agreements right here at the State Department."

Timothy Gidner,US Treasury Secretary with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his hotel inWashington DC

Singh's four-day high profile State visit to the US, the first by a foreign leader under the 10-month old Obama Administration, centered on talks at the White house on the entire gamut of bilateral relations, situation in the region and global challenges like terrorism and the economic crisis.

"We opened up some new areas for cooperation and for discussion, particularly in the areas of energy and climate change. So I think it was really an historic visit, that we had some specific accomplishments. In the long run, the important thing was that we agreed on the need for a strategic partnership in both regional and global issues," Kelly said contrary to opinion of many that it lacked the big news item like the nuclear deal announced during Singh's State visit during the Bush Administration in 2005.

"I think the main thing was it underscored the growing importance of our relationship of the United States with the world's largest democracy, of a country that is growing in importance not only regionally, but globally." The memorandums of Understanding (moUs) signed included counter-terrorism among others, and both sides decided to chalk out a new path for further bilateral ties.

But the truth of the matter is that bilateral cooperation between the two nations is still limited to the fields of trade, investment, technology and education. And, regardless of the professed bilateral political trust, differences between the two still remain in the fields of nuclear energy, anti-terrorism and environment preservation. A case in point is that the bilateral accord on civil nuclear cooperation reached between the two countries in 2005 has still not been implemented.

At the time, India had agreed to place all its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. In exchange, the US had agreed to work toward a full civil nuclear cooperation with India. But there is still the ongoing US demand that India sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Treaty for the Prohibition of Weapons of mass Destruction, which India has steadfastly refused to do. Added to this is India pushing ahead with development of advanced weapons, including nuclear weapons, resulting in US being chary of a nuclear cooperation with New Delhi.

On the positive side, the two nations pledged common "significant mitigations actions" on climate change and agreed to build a new global clean energy economy, claiming that the new "green partnership" between two of the world's biggest emitters would help produce a strong political deal in Copenhagen. In Copenhagen, India's new commitment was to take what the White house described as a "vigorous action to combat climate change" in return for assistance from industrialized countries for its shift from coal to cleaner energy sources.

"Just as we partnered each other in the shaping of the knowledge economy, we have the opportunity today to become partners in developing the green economy," Singh said as he underlined India's desire to benefit from clean and energy efficient technologies from the US. Singh made it clear there would be a price for India's cooperation.

"We will do more if there is global support in terms of financial resources and technology transfer," he told the Council of Foreign relations later. Some of that support came through with the announcement of a joint research center, with US and Indian government funds, to help speed the development of more energy efficient technologies, as well as carbon capture and storage. It is thought the US government will contribute $100m a year to the centre over the next five years."

"India was a latecomer to industrialization and as such we have contributed very little to the accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions that caused global warming, but we are determined to be part of the solution," Singh added. Although India has resisted international pressure to commit to legally binding emissions targets in negotiations, it has over the last year embarked on a series of new greener measures.

One of the key highlights of the Indian leader's visit, which attracted immense attention in America, was the State banquet hosted by Obama at the White house for Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur, a gala event to which enormous color was added by a cultural program and special Indian cuisine.

Singh, however, met with success a few days later during visit to Trinidad's capital, Port of Spain, to attend the two-day Commonwealth Summit where he and his Canadian counterpart, Stephen harper, inked a Civil Nuclear Agreement. Canadian Premier harper, whose minority government is eagerly courting Indo-Canadian voters and India's nuclear industry market, said "This agreement    is a testimony to the undeniable potential that Canada and India can offer each other and the world."

India's civilian nuclear energy market is be worth anywhere from $25-billion to $50- billion in business opportunities over the next 20 years. Indo-Canadian relations have been cool for 30 years. Canada was furious when India developed a nuclear-weapons program in 1974 by misappropriating Canadian nuclear-reactor technology. But over the past two years, both countries have been attempting to improve relations, primarily because there are more than a million Canadians of Indian ancestry, with only China sending more immigrants to Canada each year.There have been 11 ministerial visits to India over the past 2½ years, including five this year alone.

Earlier in September, Canadian Cameco, the Saskatoon-based uranium giant with mines in Saskatchewan and Kazakhstan, established a sales office in hyderabad.The move was opposed by Australia which last year banned the sale of its own uranium to India. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, which makes Canadian heavy-water reactors, is also on the hunt for new customers.The company is one of the only large players in the global nuclear power market to use heavy-water technology. With customers in romania, South Korea and Argentina, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited has been unsuccessful in its efforts to land a buyer for its next-generation reactor, the ACr-1000. Both Singh and harper described the development as a "milestone" opening up "tremendous opportunity" for their countries.

Singh, who also met with French president Nicholas Sarkozy and British Pm Gordon Brown at the Commonwealth Summit, met members of the Indo Caribbean community at a function hosted in his honor at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Port-of-Spain. Addressing the gathering, Singh said he was looking forward to more Indians making the Caribbean a tourist destination. Singh's sentiment came during his address. "Indians are now travelling around the world. I do think the Indian diaspora can emerge as a major global network for the tourism and travel trade."

"ere are many people of Indian origin on the US mainland who would be happy to come to these islands for business and holiday.There are win-win possibilities in this kind of business activity," he said. "When I meet people of Indian origin around the world I celebrate our pluralism as much as I celebrate our great civilizational inheritance," he said.

"Indianness is like a large and all-encompassing banyan tree. It offers shade to everyone who comes in search of it. "It has deep roots at home and branches that in turn go to great distances and strike roots there. India is on the move and is reaching out to the world. In reaching out to people of Indian origin, we are also reaching out to the world. you are, for millions of Indians, the most visible symbol of our own globalization."

A few days later, Singh capped his success with Canada when visiting russia.The two countries signed wide ranging agreements in the fields of nuclear energy, defense, culture and trade following the Annual summit meeting between Singh and russian President Dmitry medvedev.The agreements also include a deal for expansion of civil nuclear ties.

India and russia issued a joint declaration to strengthen their strategic partnership to meet global challenges like climate change and terrorism. "'It has been an extremely successful and satisfying visit in every way. It has reinforced the fact that India and russia have rock solid relationship that works in the interest of both the countries," Foreign Secretary Nirupama rao said about the Prime minister's visit.The joint declaration came after culmination of the three-day visit of Singh to moscow.

russia also expressed solidarity and support to India in connection with the 26/11 mumbai terrorist attacks and underscored the need to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice. India, on its part, supported russia's efforts to maintain peace and stability in the Caucasus.

India and russia also emphasized that the resurgence of the Al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan threatened the progress made over the last few years.They condemned the terrorist attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on October 8, 2009.The fight against terrorism could not be selective, and drawing false distinctions between the ‘good' and ‘bad' Taliban could be counter productive, they conceded.

reaffirming their strong commitment to a democratic, pluralistic and stable Afghanistan, the two countries highlighted the need for strict observance of the sanctions regime against persons and entities listed by the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267, also known as the Al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee.

 
[A. Sharma]