Revoke end-use deal: India to tell US soon
17 Sep 2014 12:10 AM GMT
In the midst of US willingness to extend ‘broad relationship’ with India over various issues including security, economy and energy, the Indian government is expecting that Obama will consider the proposal.
Sources said, since the new NDA government has come to power with a clear mandate, the defence ministry is pitching for revoking the ‘EUMA’, which empowers the US to carry out physical inspection of all the security or defence related parts imported from US. On July 20, 2009, the US government (President George Bush) had managed to impose EUMA on India and the accord had been signed between the two countries. A clause in the said agreement gives US the right to impose restrictions on what India may do with the equipment it buys from the US.
Also, the clause allows the US to periodically carry out an inspection and maintain an inventory of all articles transferred to India. Though, India has objected to the physical inspection and stressed that it should be done on record, US had disagreed and had subsequently imposed EUMA.
‘The accord was exchanged to check whether India is utilizing the defence related parts for nuclear purpose or not. We don’t accept this clause and are hopeful that revocation of EUMA will happen during our PM’s meeting with the US president,’ informed sources said.
He said, ‘As per the agreement we cannot modify the purchased defence article or system in any form. Also, to prevent us from getting rid of US for regular maintenance of the imported good, EUMA restricts us from getting US-origin defence equipment serviced by any another country without their prior permission. Even spare parts need to be sourced only from US. This is ridiculous. We don’t support this.’
For the past several years, concerns have been expressed within official establishments attached with the nation’s security over the US restrictive and invasive clauses. Former Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta had publicly described EUMA as ‘intrusive’. ‘There are certain things we can’t agree to. As a sovereign nation, we can’t accept intrusiveness into our system, so there is some fundamental difficulty,’ he had said.
Experts feel US has done it (imposed EUMA) to entertain some of the major American arms companies like Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp to mint money in the name of servicing. ‘But we cannot allow someone to invade in to our privacy. We are one of the world’s largest importers of conventional weapons and there should be some trust and understanding in doing business. It is unfortunate that the UPA government was bearing this burden for so many years. They should have opposed it earlier,’ a government source said.
Sources said, since the new NDA government has come to power with a clear mandate, the defence ministry is pitching for revoking the ‘EUMA’, which empowers the US to carry out physical inspection of all the security or defence related parts imported from US. On July 20, 2009, the US government (President George Bush) had managed to impose EUMA on India and the accord had been signed between the two countries. A clause in the said agreement gives US the right to impose restrictions on what India may do with the equipment it buys from the US.
Also, the clause allows the US to periodically carry out an inspection and maintain an inventory of all articles transferred to India. Though, India has objected to the physical inspection and stressed that it should be done on record, US had disagreed and had subsequently imposed EUMA.
‘The accord was exchanged to check whether India is utilizing the defence related parts for nuclear purpose or not. We don’t accept this clause and are hopeful that revocation of EUMA will happen during our PM’s meeting with the US president,’ informed sources said.
He said, ‘As per the agreement we cannot modify the purchased defence article or system in any form. Also, to prevent us from getting rid of US for regular maintenance of the imported good, EUMA restricts us from getting US-origin defence equipment serviced by any another country without their prior permission. Even spare parts need to be sourced only from US. This is ridiculous. We don’t support this.’
For the past several years, concerns have been expressed within official establishments attached with the nation’s security over the US restrictive and invasive clauses. Former Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta had publicly described EUMA as ‘intrusive’. ‘There are certain things we can’t agree to. As a sovereign nation, we can’t accept intrusiveness into our system, so there is some fundamental difficulty,’ he had said.
Experts feel US has done it (imposed EUMA) to entertain some of the major American arms companies like Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp to mint money in the name of servicing. ‘But we cannot allow someone to invade in to our privacy. We are one of the world’s largest importers of conventional weapons and there should be some trust and understanding in doing business. It is unfortunate that the UPA government was bearing this burden for so many years. They should have opposed it earlier,’ a government source said.
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