India plans move to protect maids abroad

New Delhi
6 August 2011

The alarming regularity with which Indian women working as housemaids in the Gulf and West Asian countries are subjected to inhumane treatment, and at times physical, mental and sexual torture, by their employers, has impelled the Indian government to consider negotiating country-specific bilateral agreements or strengthening the existing MoUs by fixing the responsibilities and obligations of all parties concerned, including the employer, the employee, and the recruiting agent.

A majority of the Indian housemaids are located in Kuwait, followed by Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. V Saraswati (40) from Ooty and Shabana Begum from Hyderabad are just two of the recent examples of Indians forced to return home from Saudi Arabia after mistreatment by their respective employers. Shabana Begum had suffered injuries to her spinal cord and had to be operated upon in Saudi Arabia.

New Delhi is likely to use the recently signed MoU on manpower with Oman as a template to negotiate similar agreements with more countries in the Gulf and West Asia.

It is proposed that employers will be required to allow an Indian woman employed as housemaid to use the telephone to call the nearest Indian embassy or mission at least once every week. While this facility has been incorporated in the pact with Oman, New Delhi proposes to extend it to other countries in the region, too.

Similarly, recruiters and employers will be required to specify the number of members of a family a maid will have to work for, subject to a prescribed maximum.

Besides Oman, India has signed bilateral MoUs with the UAE and Kuwait. India has signed an additional protocol with Qatar to update the 1985 Agreement on the Regulation of the Employment of Indian Manpower signed in 1985. Similar agreements were being negotiated with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

In some of the existing bilateral agreements, employers are required to furnish a bank guarantee at the time of recruiting a housemaid so that that amount could be used for facilitating the maid to return to India if her employer breaches the contract. Some other stipulations are that salaries should preferably be paid into a bank account, documents should be translated into English or another language for the benefit of the maids, and facilities such as leaves and holidays should be indicated at the time of recruitment.

Indians safe in Syria, no travel advisory for now

New Delhi
4 August 2011

Some Indian nationals living in Syria have shifted from the city of Hama, which has witnessed protests, to Aleppo, the largest city after the capital Damascus.

Similarly, a few Indians living in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor have moved to safer areas in the same province following the recent unrest.

There are about 1,000 Indian nationals in Syria and all of them were reported to be safe. There were no reports of casualties or injuries to Indian nationals.

A majority of the Indian nationals, about 600 of them, including their families, are located at the Shia shrine of Sayidda Zeinab, on the outskirts of Damascus, where they learn the religious scriptures.

Some 300-odd Indians live in Damascus, and another 35, mostly oil workers, in the province of Deir ez-Zor. The remaining Indian nationals are scattered across Syria.

Unlike some countries, India does not intend to issue a travel advisory warning its nationals to leave Syria or to not to travel to Syria. Their evacuation is ruled out for now.

New Delhi has sought to justify its stand by saying that its assessment is different from that of some other countries whose decisions are clouded by political factors. It has determined, using its mission in Damascus and other means, that the situation inside Syria is not as bad as it is made out to be by a section of media, mostly based in the US and Europe. Also, the casualty figures are exaggerated by the particular section of media.

There were only pockets of protests, and the capital Damascus and Aleppo, two of Syria's largest cities, have remained quiet. Moreover, the families of diplomats of some countries, who had been asked to leave Syria following the outbreak of violence, were reported to be returning to Damascus. At the same time, India does not anticipate a problem in relocating its nationals from Syria if the situation worsens because their population is small, unlike Egypt, Libya or Yemen.

The sentiments of India, which is the president of the United Nations security council (UNSC) for the month of August, are shared by some other non-permanent UNSC members who have since issued a presidential statement, as opposed to a resolution, voicing its concern over the developments in Syria.

India says CBMs will be a success only if Pakistan creates right atmosphere by taking prompt 26/11 action; Fai's arrest a very important development

New Delhi

23 July 2011

The "climate" for confidence building measures (CBMs) and people-to-people contacts across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir would be best served if Pakistan creates the "right atmosphere" for a dialogue by bringing the 26/11 trial to a transparent and expeditious conclusion, an Indian government source said.

The observation should be seen in the context of the forthcoming talks between external affairs minister SM Krishna and his Pakistan counterpart, Ms Hina Rabbani Khar, to be held in New Delhi on July 27.

India was expected to announce some CBMs, some unilateral, others bilateral on a reciprocal basis, after the Krishna-Khar meeting, the agenda of which would be firmed up on July 26 when foreign secretary Nirupama Rao meets with her counterpart, Salman Bashir.

The CBMs could extend to increases in the number of days for cross-LoC trade and duration of entry permits, improvement in the Srinagar - Muzaffarabad and Poonch - Rawalakot bus services, and facilities such as telephone fortraders. Islamabad was hesitant about introducing banking services for traders.

By October, Pakistan was likely to shift from a positive list of items that can be imported from India to a system of trade based on negative list of items. In other words, Pakistan would effectively be implementing Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status for India.

Some items on the agenda of the India - Pakistan Joint Commission, such as agriculture, education and telecommunications, could fall in the purview of future discussions.

The source maintained that no dramatic, big-bang announcements should be anticipated. Even if the bilateral relations were to improve incrementally, India would at least be satisfied at having pulled the dialogue out of life support, post-26/11, and draw confidence from the fact that the sequence of bilateral meetings was sustained despite the odds.

It was pointed out that India would be willing to talk on "all" issues, including, but not limited to, Jammu and Kashmir. However, the source noted, it takes two hands to clap, and Pakistan needs to take a call on that.

Meanwhile, New Delhi has described the arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai as a "very significant development". Fai is accused of having links to a decades-long effort that allegedly funnelled millions of dollars from the Inter Services Intelligence (IS), Pakistan's external intelligence agency, to fan anti-India sentiments and push Pakistan's subversive agenda over the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

New Delhi did not discount the possibility that Fai's arrest could have something to do with the recent tensions in the US - Pakistan relations, but from India's point of view the "die has been cast".

The source said it was a "good thing" that enlightenment has finally come to the US, and it will hopefully come to other countries such as Britain and Belgium, too. Certain individuals and groups are known to be carrying out anti-India activities from London and Brussels.

Fai's arrest also validates India's position that the separatists' agenda in Jammu and Kashmir receives most of its sustenance from Pakistan. In the same breath, the source said that Pakistan's foreign minister should seek to impress upon the separatists she would be meeting in New Delhi to speak the language of peace and reconciliation.


Stapled visas by China upsets India, again

India has expressed disappointment over the issue of stapled visas by China to five sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh in spite of a recent understanding reached between their officials.

"We are still searching for a de-stapler. We are obviously not amused" by the fact that they continue to issue stapled visas for our nationals, a government source said.

Recently, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi issued stapled visas to five karate players from Arunachal Pradesh, a step that ensured that they could not take part in an international championship in China as these documents were not valid for travel.

The action by China came close on the heels of the claims made by officials here that the issue has been resolved and was also reflected in the resumption of the Indo-China defence exchanges.

India hosts Libya FM, reiterates call for cessation of hostilities

New Delhi

22 July 2011

India hosted foreign minister Abdel Ati Al Obeidi of Libya on Friday for consultations on the situation obtaining in the north African country today and the status of various initiatives for resolving the crisis there.

In a statement issued after Mr Al Obeidi's talks with minister of state of external affairs E Ahamed, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said India has reiterated its position which calls for immediate cessation of all hostilities in Libya.

"[India] supports peaceful resolution of the Libyan crisis through dialogue, taking into account the legitimate aspirations of the people of Libya," the statement read.

It went on to note that Mr Ahamed conveyed India's consistent stand to maintain unity and territorial integrity of Libya, and he also expressed support for the African Union's high level ad-hoc committee's initiatives and the African Union road map for the "peaceful and consensual" resolution of the conflict.

Mr Al Obeidi's visit to India followed his talks in Moscow with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

India had abstained from voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution authorising countries "to take all necessary measures" to help protect Libyan civilians.

As Krishna leaves for Indonesia, Clinton asks India to counter China's aggression with assertiveness; Manmohan Singh to skip Commonwealth summit

New Delhi

20 July 2011

India was expected to continue its recently concluded discussions with the US on the Chinese aggression in east- and south-east Asia, with other countries in Indonesia this week.

External affairs minister SM Krishna will travel to Bali for the ninth India-Asean post-ministerial conference, the East Asia Summit (EAS) foreign ministers' consultations, and the Asean Regional Forum ministerial meeting on Friday and Saturday.

The situation in east Asia was discussed in the India-US strategic dialogue in New Delhi on Tuesday. The issue figured in US secretary of state Hillary Clinton's speech in Chennai on Wednesday, in which she urged India to be assertive in Asia.

"India's leadership has the potential to positively shape the future of the Asia-Pacific [and] we encourage you not just to look east, but continue to engage and act east as well," Ms Clinton said.

"The US has always been a Pacific power because of our very great blessing of geography, and India, straddling the waters from the Indian to Pacific Oceans, is with us a steward of these waterways".

She reminded New Delhi that with increased power comes increased responsibility. "As India takes on a larger role throughout the Asia-Pacific, it is also taking on new responsibilities including the duty to speak out against violations of universal human rights" in Burma, she said.

Ms Clinton and other foreign ministers, including Hina Rabbani Khar of Pakistan, would participate in the Bali meetings.

Ms Rabbani-Khar was scheduled to visit India next week for talks with Mr Krishna but they could exchange pleasantries on the margins of their meetings in Bali. However, the prime ministers of India and Pakistan would have to wait till the Saarc summit in Maldives in November for a possible meeting.

Indian and Pakistani leaders could have met in Perth, Australia, on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in October but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has opted out of attending it. In his place, Vice President Hamid Ansari would be leading the Indian delegation.

Hillary Clinton - SM Krishna strategic dialogue long on intent, short on strategy; US makes it clear to India that it will not dump Pakistan

New Delhi

19 July 2011

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton interspersed her conversations in New Delhi with ifs and buts, conveying to a discerning Indian audience that the US was hedging on its commitments and, in the process, reinforcing a suspicion that the second edition of the India-US strategic dialogue was long on intent but short on strategy.

Ms Clinton's remarks during the course of her talks with external affairs minister SM Krishna on Tuesday, and a joint media event which followed it, were littered with qualifications: The US will support full civil nuclear cooperation with India but the bilateral pact has to be "enforceable and actionable in all regards"; the US stands by the clean Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) waiver to India but the Indian nuclear liability law needs to be aligned with global practices; and, the US government cannot tolerate safe havens for terrorists anywhere but "we do see Pakistan as a key ally" in the war on terror and "we want a long-term relationship with" it.

There was no express commitment from Ms Clinton to either sell or to allow the sale of enrichment and reprocessing technologies to India following the NSG decision to bar their sale to non-NPT signatories such as India. There was no mention of it in the joint statement either. All she would venture to say in response to a question posed to her at the media interaction was that Washington supports the September 2008 clean waiver for India and it will push for India's membership of multilateral export control regimes such as the NSG.

Instead, Ms Clinton hastened to remind India of its commitment to ensure a level playing field for US companies seeking to enter the Indian nuclear energy sector. She voiced Washington's desire to see the Indian nuclear liability law tweaked to protect American corporate interests.

"We would encourage engagement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that the liability regime that India adopts by law fully conforms with the international requirements under the convention[.] We are committed to [the nuclear pact.] But we do expect it to be enforceable and actionable in all regards," Ms Clinton noted.

She also reminded New Delhi to ratify the Convention on Supplementary Compensation by the end of 2011. The treaty will allow foreign companies supplying nuclear material and technology to India to tap into a global corpus of funds in order to pay damages in the event of a nuclear accident.

Amplifying Ms Clinton's remarks, the joint statement said that the participation of US nuclear energy firms in India should be on the basis of "mutually acceptable technical and commercial terms and conditions that enable a viable tariff regime for electricity generated."

Dwelling on regional issues, Ms Clinton said that Pakistan has "a special obligation to [cooperate] transparently, fully and urgently" in the interest of justice for the victims of the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. She iterated that the US will continue to urge Pakistan to bring the 26/11 terrorists to justice but she qualified it by saying that "there is a limit to what both the United States and India can do".

Ms Clinton said that sale of defence technologies will help the Indian and American militaries to work together on maritime security, combating piracy, and providing relief to the victims of natural disasters. She also pushed for market access, reduction of trade barriers, and US investments in India, indicating that Washington viewed its ties with India in transactional, not strategic, terms.

For India's part, Mr Krishna sought to impress upon the American delegation that it was necessary for the US to factor in Afghanistan's ground realities and work closely with President Hamid Karzai's government so that conditions could be created where terrorists did not make any more advances in Afghanistan.

Mr Krishna said that India and the US had agreed to resume negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty. He urged the US to consider a "totalisation agreement" with India for the purpose of avoiding double taxation of income with respect to social security taxes. The agreement is essential for determining whether an Indian national is subject to the US social security or medicare tax or Indian social security taxes.

A bilateral aviation safety agreement and a memorandum of understanding on cyber security were the two tangible outcomes of the India-US dialogue.

Ms Clinton called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and met with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, and national security adviser Shivshankar Menon, among others. She would be visiting Chennai on Wednesday.

Japan may suspend nuclear talks with India; puts Manmohan Singh's ambitious nuclear programme in jeopardy

New Delhi

16 July 2011

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ambitious nuclear energy
programme risks being grounded even before it could take off with Japan
signalling its intention to suspend negotiations with India, and other
countries, for sale of nuclear-power equipment and technology.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan has indicated his personal preference
for phasing out nuclear power in his country. It could not have come at
a worse time for Prime Minister Singh, whose government is reeling
under the effects of a recent Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) decision to
restrict the sale of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies.
His government is also battling pressure from American government and
companies alike, to cushion the impact of Indias civil nuclear
liability law on the suppliers. That and the growing climate of
disenchantment with nuclear energy following the Fukushima disaster in
Japan could potentially unravel Prime Minister Singhs nuclear gambit
for which he has had to invest significant political capital in his
first term in office.

Japan needs to sign bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement with India

and have it ratified by its parliament before it can export nuclear
power technology and equipment. Compounding the problem for India is
that a delay in wrapping up the India-Japan bilateral nuclear pact will
pose a handicap for companies, both Japanese and foreign. Two major US
firms, General Electric and Westinghouse, are either partly or wholly
owned by Japanese companies. Even the French state-owned nuclear power
group Areva has a tie-up with Mitsubishi of Japan.

India is keen to tap Japans experience of constructing the Rokkasho
reprocessing plant with indigenous technology in 1992. India has
concluded negotiations for a reprocessing pact with the US which will
allow setting up of at least two dedicated facilities for reprocessing
US-origin spent nuclear fuel under IAEA safeguards. India and Japan
share similarities in their strategies for the development of nuclear
power. Both have adopted a closed fuel cycle, which entails management
of toxic waste by reprocessing the spent nuclear fuel. Also, they have
opted for a comprehensive fuel cycle, from mining to reprocessing. The
Rokkasho plant has built-in IAEA monitoring equipment and other
advanced design features and India can do with Japan's experience for
designing a state of the art, modern reprocessing facility here.

India and Japan have held three rounds of negotiations so far. Both
sides exchanged views on various aspects related to nuclear energy as
recently as April this year, during foreign secretary Nirupama Raos
talks in Tokyo. Both sides will continue to discuss the way forward
for cooperation in this sphere, a statement issued towards the end of

her visit had said.

On the morning after the Mumbai terrorist attacks, India is not sure of who was behind it, but it is certain that dialogue with Pakistan will continue

New Delhi

14 July 2011

The latest serial blasts in Mumbai may or may not be the handiwork of Pakistani elements inimical to rapprochement with India, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it categorical that peace talks with Pakistan will not be disrupted irrespective of its perpetrators or their motivations.

On the morning after the terror strike, he deployed two of his senior Cabinet colleagues, P Chidambaram and SM Krishna, to reassure an international audience, worried about the consequences of a downturn in India-Pakistan bilateral ties in the wake of another terrorist attack in Mumbai after 26/11, that he will stay the course on Pakistan.

Mr Krishna said that the blasts will have no impact on the talks with his Pakistan counterpart this month. Mr Chidambaram, in turn, said in Mumbai that while all hostile groups are suspects, he would not want to point a finger at any particular group just yet.

Their statements would have calmed fears somewhat, given the sentiment in a section of the international community that peace between Pakistan and India was a global imperative.

The degree of anxiety generated by the attacks could be gauged from a flurry of condolences from world leaders such as Asif Ali Zardari and Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton of the US, Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Stephen Harper of Canada, William Hague ofBritain, Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd of Australia, the foreign ministries of Israel and Japan, and organisations such as the United Nations and the European Union.

However, domestic opinion was divided, with some Indians wondering whether relations with Pakistan had matured to the extent that one could begin to think in terms of moving away from presumption of guilt of elements hostile to the peace process. Also, some attempts to blame the Indian Mujahideen for the attacks were seen as a ruse to insulate New Delhi from criticism of its Pakistan policy.

At the same time, the government sought to defend itself by maintaining that there was nothing to be gained from fingerpointing, and, that its stand was in keeping with the spirit of Thimphu and Sharm-el-Sheikh.

Prime Minister Singh and his Pakistan counterpart, Yousaf Raza Gilani, had agreed in Thimphu in April 2010 that dialogue was the way forward. Since then, the foreign ministers and foreign secretaries of the two countries have met on several occasions.

At Sharm-el-Sheikh in July 2009, Singh and Gilani had agreed that action on terrorism should not be linked to the dialogue and the two should not be bracketed.

Further, it was pointed out that foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had recently said in aninterview to an Indian television channel that Pakistan's attitude towards tackling terrorism had "altered", and that its talk of tackling non-state elements was a "concrete development."

B Raman, a former official with the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency, noted that Pakistan "post-Abbottabad" was not the same as Pakistan pre-Abbottabad. There was an intense introspection regarding Pakistan's relations with the US, and,according to him, India has been a conceptual beneficiary of this introspection.

In an article he wrote before the latest Mumbai attacks, Mr Raman said:"The [language] is changing for the better, though one is not certain how long this would last. One could now sense a feeling of confidence in the Pakistani political leadership that less negative statements about India might have greater public support than in the past."

New Delhi's assertion, that talks with Pakistan will continue, couldnot have come a moment too soon for Mani Shankar Aiyar of the Congress party. Aiyar, a former diplomat and a former Union minister, may still not find a place in Prime Minister Singh's council of ministers but he has never tired of endorsing Mr Singh's hopes of ensuring that thepeace talks with Pakistan become "uninterrupted and uninterruptible."

SM Krishna holds talks with Burhanuddin Rabbani of Afghanistan; will continue discussion on Af-Pak with Hillary Clinton next week

New Delhi

14 July 2011

Burhanuddin Rabbani, who heads a panel which has the Afghanistan government's mandate to negotiate peace with the Taliban, would not mind using the good offices of India for finding a political solution to the strife in his country.

India is an important country in the region and we want its cooperation in peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, Mr Rabbani said on the occasion of his talks with external affairs minister SM Krishna in New Delhi on Thursday.

Mr Rabbani is on a four-day visit to India.

Afghans should not be victims in the hands of others to be used against the Afghan people themselves, Mr Rabbani said without elaborating. He noted that regional countries had a role in promoting peace in Afghanistan.

India was expected to discuss the situation in Afghanistan with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton when she visits New Delhi next week.

Talking to journalists, US charge d'affaires Peter Burleigh said Afghanistan could figure "prominently" in the Clinton-Krishna talks, in which the relations between and among the US, India and Pakistan would be "thoroughly covered".

Burleigh described the Taliban reconciliation talks as a "very important issue" for the US and India alike.

The US was keeping India informed of the substance of the "very preliminary discussions" that have taken place with the Taliban interlocutors.

The diplomat went on to note that the negotiations for "reaching an understanding" with "some Taliban elements" were making "slow process", and the talks could be expected to "continue for months".

"[The US is] continuing to explore [and it] will keep India directly informed and also seek advice," Mr Burleigh said.

The situation in west Asia, north Africa, and east- and south-east Asia, was also likely to be discussed in the second strategic dialogue between Clinton and Krishna on July 19.

Replying to a question about the possible implications of the US losing out on a multi-billion tender for fighter jets for the Indian Air Force, on the defence cooperation with India, Mr Burleigh said "one contract here and there [does not] make or break [the] relationship" and that the US was in it for the long-term.

India to host Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of Afghan high peace council, this week

New Delhi

11 July 2011

India will discuss Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai's peace overtures to the Taliban when it hosts Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the Afghan high peace council, this week.

There was no official word from the government, but it was learnt that Mr Rabbani was expected to hold talks with the Indian leadership on Thursday.

Last year, a Jirga (tribal elders' council) had approved President Karzai's initiative to constitute a panel for starting peace talks with the Taliban. Prof Rabbani was chosen to lead the panel.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had met with Prof Rabbani in Kabul during his visit to Afghanistan in May this year. On the occasion Mr Singh had spoken about India's qualified support to the Afghan government's peace talks with the
Taliban.

India would not stand in the way of the talks provided certain red lines were adhered to: the peace process should be Afghan-led and Afghan-driven; the Taliban elements must have renounced violence and severed all links with the hardcore terrorists; and they should accept the constitution of Afghanistan.

Recently, President Karzai and former US defence secretary Robert Gates confirmed that preliminary contacts had been made with certain Taliban elements. According to reports, contacts had been established with Tayyab Agha, a former personal aide to Mullah Omar, and Motasim Agha Jan, Omar's son-in-law.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has since described it as a necessary but unpleasant attempt to achieve a semblance of stability in Afghanistan. Clinton's British counterpart, William Hague, in turn, has said that the UK played a key role in helping initiate the "distasteful" talks with the Taliban.

The situation in Afghanistan is expected to be one of the key points of discussion in the India - US strategic dialogue, which will be chaired by external affairs minister SM Krishna and Ms Clinton in New Delhi on July 19.

Hillary Clinton to visit India for second India - US strategic dialogue on July 19; India disappointed with Denmark for not extraditing Kim Davy

New Delhi

8 July 2011

In the second India - US strategic dialogue to be held in New Delhi on July 19 external affairs minister SM Krishna and his American counterpart, Hillary Clinton, can be expected to discuss issues such as civil nuclear cooperation, India's membership of four multilateral export control regimes, counter-terrorism, situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, disarmament and non-proliferation, trade, energy- and food security.

The dialogue was originally planned for April this year but was postponed because of the assembly elections in India and developments in West Asia and North Africa.

The inaugural India - US strategic dialogue was held in Washington in June 2010.

Ahead of Ms Clinton's visit, the India-US high technology cooperation group will meet in New Delhi on July 11 and 12. Established in 2002, the group is the principal forum for advancing bilateral cooperation in advanced technologies, including in dual use and strategic trade. The third meeting of the India-US joint working group on civil space cooperation will be held on July 13 and 14 in Bengaluru.

During US president Barack Obama's visit to India in November 2010, the US had announced the easing of dual-use trade and declared support for India's full membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and three other entities.

Meanwhile, India has expressed disappointment that the authorities in Denmark could not comply with India's request for the extradition of Kim Davy to India to stand trial for his role in the Purulia arms drop case.

An MEA spokesman said, "In our view, the judgement has grave and far-reaching implications and can only serve as an encouragement to terrorists and criminals. We also completely reject the grounds cited by the Danish court as the basis for its decision."

The spokesman noted that the government of Denmark had decided on April 9, 2010 to extradite Kim Davy to India but the Danish authorities failed to successfully defend their decision in the Danish courts and it is regrettable that they have decided not to appeal the high court judgement in the supreme court.

"Our demand for the extradition of Kim Davy to India stands. He must face the law in India for his actions," the spokesman added.

Ansari to witness birth of Africa's newest nation

New Delhi
7 July 2011

Vice President Hamid Ansari will represent India at the inauguration of the independent state of South Sudan on Saturday.

The people of South Sudan had overwhelmingly voted for independence from the north, in the referendum that was held on January 9 this year.

Mr Ansari would visit Kampala, in Uganda, on his way to and from South Sudan. During his stay in Kampala, he would meet with President Yoweri Museveni.

India has been one of the largest contributor of troops to the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in addition to lending police officers to both UNMIS and the government of South Sudan.

India recently pledged five million US dollars (over Rs 22 crore) for development assistance of South Sudan and capacity building projects.

The formal ceremony proclaiming the independence of South Sudan would be held in its capital, Juba.

The three-hour long ceremony will be attended by a host of world leaders, including UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and US foreign minister Hillary Clinton.

Mr Ansari is expected to announce that the Indian consulate in Juba will be upgraded to an embassy soon.

India has stakes in South Sudan's oil wells, and Mr Ansari would be keen to hear from the government of South Sudan about their fate.

India, Iran discuss trilateral cooperation with Afghanistan; issue of oil payments nowhere near resolution

New Delhi

6 July 2011

Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao discussed trilateral cooperation among India, Iran and Afghanistan in her talks in Tehran, signalling a movement beyond mere articulation of positions to possibly a structured consultation on the situation in Afghanistan.

Ms Rao called on foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Tuesday and held talks with deputy foreign minister for Asian and Asia-Pacific affairs Mohd Ali Fathollahi. She met with Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran's supreme national security council, on Wednesday.

The situation in the Arab world, anti-piracy cooperation and consular issues were among other issues that Ms Rao discussed in her talks with Mr Fathollahi, who first mooted the trilateral cooperation during his visit to India in August 2010.

Ms Rao's visit to Iran followed that of national security adviser Shivshankar Menon in March, on the eve of the Persian New Year.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has shied away from visiting Iran but an opportunity could present itself in 2012 when Iran hosts the NAM Summit.

Ms Rao's visit comes amid India's continuing search for an amicable solution for crude-oil payments to Iran. Iran has been selling crude to India on credit (the outstandings are over Rs 4,400 crore) since December 2010, when the Reserve Bank of India discontinued the practice of routing payments through a regional clearinghouse called the Asian Clearing Union in view of the US sanctions on Iran.

India switched to the services of the German-Iranian Europaish-Iranische Handelk AG (EIH) bank based in Hamburg but the European Union's sanctions against the bank in May forced Germany to terminate the facility. Petroleum and natural gas minister Jaipal Reddy has said that efforts were being made to ensure uninterrupted oil supplies from Iran. Iran is India's second largest source of imports after Saudi Arabia.

Ms Rao's visit came a year to the day since her July 5, 2010 speech in New Delhi in which she spoke about India pursuing its ties with Iran independent of the US, making accelerated efforts" to complete infrastructure projects, and how India was "justifiably concerned that the extra-territorial nature of certain unilateral sanctions recently imposed by individual countries" could adversely affect India's energy security.

The bilateral ties have remained in disrepair since 2005 when India voted against Iran in the IAEA.

India-Netherlands foreign ministers hold talks, statement silent on new NSG guidelines

New Delhi

5 July 2011

A statement issued after external affairs minister SM Krishna's talks with his Dutch counterpart Uri Rosenthal in New Delhi on Tuesday was silent on the new Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) guidelines limiting the sale of sensitive enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies to NPT signatories only. However, the issue was understood to have been discussed in the meeting, coming as it did less than a fortnight after the NSG plenary at Noordwijk in the Netherlands, which concluded on June 24.

The Netherlands is currently the chair of the 46-member NSG.

India has not signed the NPT, and, therefore, it views the revised guidelines as impinging on the clean waiver it got from the NSG in September 2008. The guidelines have not been published in open text as yet, but the Dutch minister's visit here would have served India to fully discuss them and draw appropriate conclusions from it. The sentiment in the NSG on India's quest for the membership of the group, and the sale of two new reactors by China to Pakistan, were understood to have been discussed, too. In May, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had met with the NSG Troika, comprising the Netherlands, New Zealand and Hungary, in The Hague.

The situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, West Asia, North Africa, and UN reforms figured in their discussions, too. The Dutch minister had visited Afghanistan before arriving in New Delhi. The Netherlands was the first NATO ally to withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan in August 2010, but it was helping in training the Afghan security forces, which India was doing, too.

Meanwhile, France reiterated its commitment to full civil nuclear cooperation with India in all aspects, including, but not limited to, nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear fuel. In his second statement in five days, France's ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont said, " ... nothing in the existing and future guidelines shall be interpreted as detracting from that exemption or reducing the ambition of our bilateral cooperation."

He qualified it by saying that the scope of bilateral civil nuclear cooperation would be consistent with France's national policies and international obligations, including the NPT. The reiteration by France follows foreign secretary Nirupama Rao's interview to an Indian television channel in which she hinted that India could choose not to buy nuclear reactors from countries that would not sell ENR technologies to it.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India to visit Bangladesh on September 6 and 7

New Delhi

4 July 2011

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Bangladesh on September 6 and 7, it was simultaneously announced here and in Dhaka. It will be the first official bilateral visit by an Indian premier in over 12 years since Atal Bihari Vajpayee travelled there in June 1999 on the occasion of the inaugural run of a bus from Kolkata to Dhaka.

External affairs minister SM Krishna will travel to Dhaka on Wednesday as a prelude to Prime Minister Singh's visit. Mr Krishna will call on President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, hold talks with foreign minister Dipu Moni and finance minister AMA Muhith, and meet with leader of opposition Khaleda Zia.

Although there was no official word either from New Delhi or Dhaka, home minister P Chidambaram was likely to visit Bangladesh in the coming weeks as both sides were discussing a possible agreement on issues such as border demarcation and adversely possessed enclaves.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi was scheduled to attend a conference in Dhaka on July 25.

India and Bangladesh share a 4,095-kilometre-long border but only a small portion of it is left to be demarcated. Bangladesh holds 226.81 acres of Indian land as adverse possession while 551.8 acres of Bangladesh land is in the adverse possession of India.

Exchange of enclaves was under discussion, too. India has 92 enclaves of Bangladesh while 110 of its own are in Bangladesh.

The two countries were also negotiating an agreement on sharing the Teesta river waters.

Announcing Mr Singh's visit to Dhaka, the Bangladesh government said Monday that prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Manmohan Singh were expected to discuss cooperation in trade, connectivity, water resources management, power, land boundary demarcation, border management, security, culture, education, and people-to-people contact, among others.

"The two prime ministers will take stock of the implementation of the decisions taken during the visit of [Ms Hasina] to India in January 2010 and will provide guidance for further widening and deepening of the excellent relations between the two countries," it said in a statement, which was made available here by the Bangladesh high commission.

The official announcement of Mr Singh's visit to Dhaka came a few days after he was reported as saying that at least 25 per cent of the population of Bangladesh swears by the Jamiat-ul-Islami and "they are very anti-Indian, and they are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI." According to the prime minister's office, his remarks were intended to be off the record but they figured in the official transcript released after Mr Singh's interaction with some editors. The remarks were later deleted from the official transcript.

// Manmohan calls Hasina //

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke with his Bangladesh
counterpart, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, on Monday.

[He] called the prime minister of Bangladesh [to] say how much he was
looking forward to the visit and to renewing contacts with his old
friends there, the prime ministers office said in a statement.

Prime Minister Singh hoped his September 6-7 visit would provide an
opportunity to give added momentum and high level political direction
to bilateral ties, which have been intensifying steadily in recent
years.

He noted that there existed goodwill among the political parties in
India and Bangladesh, and encouraging people to people contacts was a
priority in the relationship.

For her part, Ms Hasina said that she personally and the people of
Bangladesh were waiting eagerly to receive the Indian prime minister
and that there were high expectations from the visit, which she hoped
would be a historic one.

Prime Minister Singh conveyed his warm personal greetings to Ms Hasina
and through her to the people of Bangladesh and observed that India
attached the highest importance to relations with Bangladesh and that a
strong and productive partnership between the two countries was in the
interest of the two peoples and the people of South Asia as a whole.

NSG decision is not the end of the road for India: Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao

New Delhi

3 July 2011

The recent decision of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on transfer of sensitive enrichment and reprocessing technologies was "not the end of the road" as the new rules, which are not in the public domain yet, need to be studied before drawing any conclusion, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said in an interview to an Indian TV channel.

In the interview, she insisted that Pakistan's attitude towards tackling terrorism has "altered", which was a "concrete" development that India should take note of.

Ms Rao said she has confirmation from the US, France and Russia that they stood by the commitments they made to India at the time of entering into civil nuclear cooperation agreements and that there was "no dilution of these commitments".

"As a professional engaged in this process, I think the latest NSG decision is not the end of the road. It is not set in stone," Ms Rao told Karan Thapar on "Devil's Advocate" programme on CNN-IBN.

"... these guidelines have not been published in open text as yet. We need to study that more fully and we need to draw our conclusions from that," she noted.

Asked whether her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir accepted the revelations made by Mumbai attacks case accused David Headley in a Chicago trial court, Ms Rao said the strategic link between the Pakistani state and militancy and terror needed to be broken.

"Well, he is not going to say that in so many words to me. I think it would be unrealistic for me to expect that the foreign secretary of Pakistan is going to say that," she said when asked whether Bashir admitted to the strategic link between the Pakistani state and terror outfits.

Noting that India has had sustained dialogue with Pakistan on the 26/11 issue, Ms Rao said concrete results seem to be very far off.

"We have not seen anything actually happening on the Mumbai trial and that is the point of great concern to us. But let me ask you a question. Does it mean that dialogue is not an option that we should pursue with Pakistan? ... I do not think you are making policy in a laboratory. You take into account the surrounding environment. You take into account the success of a certain approach or not."

"Did that approach (of not talking) yield too many dividends? Well, you have to make your assessment of that. I think the decision to re-engage with Pakistan and to talk about the issues that divide us, that create a gulf between us, to reduce the trust deficit, as the two Prime Ministers said, I think is a very realistic approach to dealing with problems with Pakistan," Ms Rao said.

After US and Russia, France reassures India on clean NSG waiver

New Delhi

1 July 2011

After the United States and Russia, France has iterated its commitment to full civil

nuclear cooperation with India.

The French government has said that the Nuclear Suppliers Group's (NSG's) recent

decision, to bar transfer of sensitive enrichment and reprocessing technologies to non-

NPT signatories, does not undermine the waiver granted to India in September 2008.

"The decision taken by the NSG is not a measure targeting any particular State. This

decision is the fruit of prolonged discussions initiated in 2004. Coming after the decision

of exemption from the full-scope safeguards clause, adopted in favour of India in

September 2008, it does not undermine the principles of this exemption," Jerome

Bonnafont, the French ambassador to India, said.

In a statement, the envoy also said, "France confirms that this NSG decision in no way

undermines the parameters of our bilateral cooperation, and is committed to the full

implementation of our cooperation agreement on the development of peaceful uses of

nuclear energy signed on September 30, 2008."

Bonnafont emphasised that France was strongly committed to the development of an

innovative, broad-based and dynamic civilian nuclear cooperation with India.

The NSG held its plenary at Noordwijk in the Netherlands in June.

Further, Bonnafont said President Nicolas Sarkozy of France announced his support for

India's membership of four multilateral export control regimes during his visit to India in

December 2010, and France iterated its "full and complete support" to India's

membership of the NSG in its meeting which concluded on June 24.

In September 2008, France became the first country to sign a bilateral civilian nuclear

accord with India after the NSG granted a landmark waiver to New Delhi, reopening

global civilian nuclear commerce after a gap of 34 years. The French envoy's assurance

on his country's commitment to full civilian nuclear cooperation came a day after

outgoing US ambassador Timothy Roemer stressed that Washington was firmly

committed to NSG's clean waiver to India.

Peter Burleigh assumes charge as interim US ambassador to India for second time in 3 years

New Delhi

1 July 2011

Peter Burleigh assumed charge Friday as the interim US ambassador to India, a

position he had briefly held in 2009.

Burleigh was expected to hold the office until the US government nominates a successor

to Tim Roemer, who resigned from the post of ambassador on April 28, citing personal,

professional and family considerations.

Burleigh temporarily served as charge d'affaires in New Delhi from April to July 2009,

after David Mulford completed his tenure as ambassador.

US supports clean NSG waiver for India, says outgoing US envoy Roemer

New Delhi

30 June 2011

The US strongly supports the NSG's clean waiver for India, outgoing

ambassador Timothy Roemer said.

"I want to say that the US and the Obama Administration strongly and vehemently

support the clean waiver for India. The 123 civil nuclear legislation also underscores our

support for India in this debate that is going on and our law also points to the clean

waiver for India," Roemer said in his last interaction with the media.

Asked to comment on the issue of excessive frisking and body searches of Indian

diplomats, officials and other eminent Indians at the US airports, Roemer said the US

was working on these issues to prevent their recurrence in future.

"When Janet Napolitano (US Homeland Security Secretary) was here, she said that we

are working to improve [and] coordinating more and more on travel itineraries [of VIPs]

so that those experiences don't take place in future," Roemer said.

Roemer resigned on April 28, citing personal, professional and family considerations.

Albert Peter Burleigh is expected to succeed Roemer as the interim US ambassador in

India. Burleigh (69) is no stranger to India, having temporarily served as charge

d'affaires at the US embassy in New Delhi from April to July 2009, after David Mulford

completed his tenure as ambassador here and before Roemer took up his current

position.

With eye on China, India to host trilateral talks with Japan, US this year; Japan does not fancy the Quadrilateral with Australia

New Delhi
29 June 2011

For Japan, three is not a crowd. Four maybe. While it agrees that a more robust Asian security architecture will be required if China's opaque military modernisation continues, for now it will be content with trilateral or three-way security dialogues involving India, Australia and the United States, without giving it the shape of a Quadrilateral or resurrecting notions of containing China. Currently, Japan has trilateral dialogues with the US and India; with the US and Australia; and with China and South Korea. India is the third country, after the US and Australia, with which Japan has the two-plus-two talks involving foreign and defence ministers. New Delhi is expected to host the inaugural India-US-Japan trilateral dialogue later this year. It will be conducted by officials, and not by foreign ministers as was mentioned in the April 8 press release issued by the ministry of external affairs after foreign secretary Nirupama Rao's talks in Tokyo. Besides discussing anti-piracy cooperation and maritime security, the talks could progressively extend to cover security and defence cooperation.

China's military rise has caused concerns in the region and beyond. Without naming China, Australian defence minister Stephen Smith recently said, "All we ask in terms of a growth of military capacity is that one is transparent as to its strategic intentions". That view is shared by Tokyo. "We keep asking the Chinese what is your intention [but] unfortunately we have not received a convincing explanation," Akitaka Saiki, Japan's new ambassador to India, said Wednesday in an interaction at the Observer Research Foundation here. "While Japan has no intention to undermine good neighbourly relations with China, I hope China will be a little more sensitive to concerns expressed by its neighbours. Actions need to match words, that's my view," he observed. Mr Saiki cautioned that the future trajectory of trilateral talks would depend on Beijing's attitude.

The current Japanese sentiment stands in contrast to the churning in Australia, which has instituted a Defence Force Posture Review for addressing issues such as "the growth of military power projection capabilities of countries in the Asia Pacific" -- an indirect reference to China's reach and influence. In a recent interaction with this newspaper, Michael Auslin from the US-based American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said that Australia, not post-tsunami Japan, could be the lead partner in the Quadrilateral. Dr John Lee from the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, in turn, cited the increasing possibility of Australia lifting the ban on uranium sale to India to suggest that the perception of Australia drifting towards China was not true.

The Quadrilateral was an initiative of Shinzo Abe, who was the Japanese premier from September 2006 to September 2007. On September 4, 2007, the navies of India, Japan, the US, Australia and Singapore conducted joint naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal. However, later that year, Australia's then newly elected prime minister and current foreign minister Kevin Rudd unilaterally withdrew from the Quadrilateral Initiative. The strategic pact has remained stillborn ever since. It suffered another setback after Abe's Liberal Democratic Party lost power to the Democratic Party in 2009. India did not show any particular interest, either. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in Beijing in January 2008 that India was "not part of any so-called 'contain China' effort".

New Zealand to deepen defence relations with India; indicates support for India's quest for membership of NSG, other export control regimes

New Delhi

28 June 2011

New Zealand will appoint a defence adviser to India to better facilitate defence

linkages, said a joint statement issued towards the end of the talks here Tuesday

between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart, John Key.

On the occasion both sides signed a protocol for cooperation on science and innovation

and an agreement on audio-visual co-production. The science and innovation protocol for

Cooperation was expected to provide a framework for future scientific exchanges and

research collaboration.

In a statement, Prime Minister Singh said India and New Zealand had agreed on a new

education cooperation initiative which would be jointly funded for promoting partnerships

in higher education and research, and skills and vocational education.

The joint statement said the two prime ministers agreed that regional and global

cooperation should continue to ensure maritime security as both sides recognised the

need for ensuring the safety and security of sea lanes.

New Zealand welcomed increased engagement between India and the multilateral export

control regimes. India is keen on becoming a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group

(NSG), Wassenaar Arrangement, Australia Group, and the Missile Technology Control

Regime (MTCR). New Zealand is a member of the NSG Troika, currently comprising the

Netherlands, New Zealand and Hungary.

Further, the joint statement said that the two leaders discussed global security

challenges and agreed on the importance of collaborating in the international and

regional contexts.

Prime Minister Singh said he and Mr Key reviewed the status of the negotiations on a

bilateral free trade agreement.

Ranjan Mathai is new foreign secretary of India

New Delhi

27 June 2011

Ranjan Mathai, India's ambassador to France, will be the next foreign secretary. The 59-year-old diplomat will assume charge on August 1, the day after the incumbent, Ms Nirupama Rao, superannuates.

A 1974 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, Mr Mathai will serve as the top diplomat for two years, until July 31, 2013.

Since 1998, Mr Mathai has served abroad, successively in Tel Aviv, Doha, London and Paris. Prior to serving as ambassador to France (since January 2007), Mr Mathai was India's deputy high commissioner in London (August 2005 to January 2007), ambassador to Qatar (August 2001 to July 2005), ambassador to Israel (February 1998 to June 2001).

Mr Mathai is the first foreign secretary since the UPA came to power in 2004, who has not served as an envoy in India's neighbourhood. However, between January 1995 and February 1998 he was a joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs looking after the division responsible for India's relations with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Burma.

A Malayali by origin, Mr Mathai is a post-graduate in political science from the University of Poona.

Although a formal announcement is awaited, Ms Nirupama Rao will succeed Meera Shankar as the Indian ambassador to the United States. Ms Rao (60) was to retire in December last year but she was given an extension till July 31 this year. During her term, the government amended its rules to stipulate that a foreign secretary would henceforth serve for a fixed period of two years.

Sujatha Singh, India's high commissioner to Australia, is likely to succeed Mr Mathai as the new Indian ambassador to France.