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:: DEFENCE |
Nuclear power for India is good for us all
STANFORD, California, If the deal to supply India with nuclear technologies goes through, future generations may remember it for quite different reasons than the debate over nuclear proliferation
Turf battles hit Indian spy in the sky
(SPECIAL)
New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) Bureaucratic wrangling and turf battles between India's civilian and military intelligence agencies, exacerbated by budgetary squabbles, continue to hamper efforts to modernise the country's shadowy and highly classified Aviation Research Centre (ARC).
Bush, India, and two degrees of separation
Thanks to public debate and hard bargaining, our scientists have had many of their technical concerns addressed. But India must resist U.S. pressure to link the nuclear deal to any wider strategic realignment.
India, U.S. reaffirm commitment to expand ties
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush express satisfaction with progress in advancing strategic partnership.
"India wants safeguards locked to fuel supply"
M.R. Srinivasan: "The question of putting reprocessing plants under safeguards does not arise."
How do you see the signing of the July 2005 agreement by India and the United States?
‘This nuclear deal really removes the last barrier between India and the US’
As a South Asia specialist in the US state department, Dennis Kux’s acquaintance with India and Pakistan goes back to the 1950s. Author of books on America’s relations with the two countries (‘The United States and Pakistan, 1947-2000: Disenchanted Allies’ and ‘India and the United States: Estranged Democracies, 1947-1991’), he is in India to research an article for the US Foreign Policy Association, called ‘Whither India’.
Thanks Jacques, hello George
After an exciting political foreplay with the visiting French President, Jacques Chirac, Indian nuclear diplomacy this week will turn to the real challenge of finalising the contours of a nuclear separation plan with the United States.
Who’s afraid of the nuke deal?
The issue of whether or not India’s fast breeder reactor should be placed under safeguards is at the core of the storm raging in India around the Indo-US nuclear agreement. Leading functionaries of our atomic energy establishment have categorically asserted that the breeder reactor and some other power reactors feeding into it must be declared as military facilities and not be opened up to safeguarding. The DAE chairman, Anil Kakodkar, has cautioned that to do otherwise would compromise not only our nuclear energy programme but also national security.
Perils of three-way security cooperation
THIS WEEK, the chief of Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Force — a well-equipped and robust navy that is still shy about calling itself by its proper name — will arrive in India to kick off a series of the most intensive high-level military and security-related contacts the two countries will have had to date.
The Fast Breeder Programme just cannot be put on the civilian list’
Anil Kakodkar played a key role in the 1974 ‘peaceful nuclear explosion’ at Pokharan and was dubbed the ‘baby’ of that team. He subsequently rose among the ranks to be mission director for the 1998 nuclear explosions. Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, Kakodkar tells Pallava Bagla about the ongoing negotiations with the US. Excerpts from the interview:
Catch the new nuclear moment
The United States is initiating — in cooperation with Russia, UK, France, China and Japan — a new era of nuclear energy. The rising price of oil, its rapid depletion, environmental concerns and the growing demand for energy, have compelled the US and other nuclear states to rethink the role of nuclear energy and also the advisability of the reprocessing and use of plutonium in fast breeder reactors. The US will restart its research on nuclear reactors on a massive scale in collaboration with other nuclear countries. As happened with rocket and missile programmes, in which Russia was ahead of the US (it sent the Sputnik up first) but was soon overtaken by the latter, the US is likely to emerge on top in fast breeder reactors too.
Question mark over Indo-U.S. nuclear deal
Unless Washington blinks on the fast-breeder reactor and voluntary safeguards, the agreement will not fly in India
FOR THE past few weeks, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has been the subject of a smear campaign orchestrated by those who feel the Indo-U.S. agreement on civil nuclear cooperation will unravel unless the country's nuclear scientists quickly fall in line.
"Make public the nuclear deal with U.S."
The Government of India should put aside its present policy of reticence and share with the people of India all that they are legitimately entitled to know.
Eight Bangalore-based former Indian Ambassadors have issued a press statement on the Indo-U.S. nuclear agreement. The text of the statement is:
Under a mushroom cloud
DAE’s reluctance to rethink, and to think big on India’s nuclear strategy is a problem
The cat is out of the bag. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) says it does not need too much of international cooperation to expand nuclear power generation in this country. It wants the nation to wait two or more decades for a large nuclear power programme. Because the DAE wants to plough the lonely furrow of technological isolation.
Coming to terms with nuclear regime change
Reviled by some in India as the "ayatollahs of non-proliferation,"Michael Kreponof the Stimson Center andLeonard Spectorof the Centre for Nonproliferation Studies are leading the charge against the Indo-U.S. nuclear agreement in Washington. In an interview during a recent visit to Delhi, they spoke about the reasons for their opposition. Excerpts:
Separation is not rocket science
The recent high-level technical discussion between India and the US on the Indo-US nuclear agreement seems to have run into some difficulties. The differences between the two sides hinge mainly on the separation plan that had been suggested by India. Reports suggest that the US is unhappy with the meagre list of facilities offered by India for safeguards by IAEA as well as with the omission of the fast breeder programme from the list. IAEA’s safeguards apply to facilities and materials and therefore go beyond only reactors and would include conversion facilities and enrichment plants. India’s only enrichment plant is meant for the Indian nuclear submarine programme and clearly being military in nature would not be expected to be placed under safeguards. However, for the moment we shall consider only reactors.
Go on, break the mould
When climbing steep heights, you are advised not to look down. If you do and sense how far up you have already gone, the temptation to retrace your steps becomes irresistible. After a year of bold moves on the foreign policy front, the UPA government appears smitten by acrophobia — the irrational fear of heights.
Small start to the Great Game
The abduction and murder of a Border Roads driver, Ramankutty Maniyappan, illustrates the pitfalls of providing even non-military aid to an unsettled Afghanistan.The killing raises the question of workers’ safety, though not in the way that the murderers seek to impose.
India steps up security for missions in Bangladesh
New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) India has stepped up security at its missions in Bangladesh following militant threats to Western embassies and is framing a long-term strategy to insulate itself from a new wave of Al Qaeda-inspired terror threatening that country.
Links between Dawood, Al Qaeda: US magazine
New Delhi, Nov 28 (IANS) Dawood Ibrahim, India's most wanted criminal, is working closely with the Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups like the Lashker-e-Taiba, says a prominent US magazine in a report on the synchronisation of organised crime and terrorism.
Pranab to boost defence ties during US visit
New Delhi, June 24: Concerns about the reliability of the US as an arms supplier and joint efforts to develop military hardware and technology will be on the agenda during Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee's four-day visit to the US beginning Saturday.
In Siachen, PM will thank Army
Beijing, June 9: As the first Prime Minister to visit the troops maintaining an impossible vigil at the Siachen glacier, Manmohan Singh will get a sense of the extraordinary fortitude of the Indian Army.
India marks Pokhran anniversary on quiet, confident note
New Delhi, May 11: India, which stunned the world with a series of atomic tests seven years ago, marked the anniversary Wednesday quietly but confidently and convinced that the events since then have vindicated the country's decision to cross the nuclear Rubicon.
Pakistan, India closer to pact on missile tests
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India Tuesday (Dec 28) moved closer to finalising an agreement on providing advance information to each other about missile tests, it was announced after two days of talks here between their foreign secretaries.
A.Q. Khan's nuke black market still unravelling
NEW YORK: Almost a year after the arrest of Abdul Qadeer Khan, who mentored Pakistan's atomic bomb, the extent of a nuclear black market opened by him is still being unravelled, the New York Times reported Sunday (Dec 26).
Sri Lanka-India naval exercises next week
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan and Indian naval forces are to begin joint naval exercises next week, Xinhua reported Saturday (Dec 11).
Pakistan rules out any access to disgraced nuclear scientist
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said it would not allow any foreign country or agency directly or indirectly to question disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Pakistan wants greater defence ties with US, France
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan wants to step up defence collaboration with the US and France, President Pervez Musharraf said Thursday (Dec 9) after returning from a six-nation tour.
US 'sensitive' to Indian concerns on arms sales to Pakistan
NEW DELHI: The US is "sensitive" about New Delhi's concerns about Washington's decision to sell sophisticated weapons to Pakistan, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Indian leaders here Thursday (Dec 9).
US defence secretary sidesteps India's concern over F16s for Pakistan
NEW DELHI: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met Indian leaders on Thursday (Dec 9) but sidestepped controversy after New Delhi urged Washington not to sell F-16 fighter planes to rival Pakistan.
Pakistan conducts second test of nuclear-capable missile in 10 days
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday (Dec 8) test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead but insisted it was not sending a signal to India amid continuing peace moves with its regional rival.
India cautioned US against selling F-16s to Pakistan: minister
NEW DELHI: India has cautioned the United States against a decision to sell F-16 fighter aircraft to arch-rival Pakistan, Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said.
Musharraf discusses F-16 fighter jet deal with Bush
WASHINGTON: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he discussed with US President George W. Bush a potential purchase of US F-16 fighter jets to upgrade the defense capability of his country.
Musharraf to lobby for F-16s in US
WASHINGTON: Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf meets US President George W. Bush at the White House Saturday (Dec 4), hoping to gain some tangible "rewards" for continued cooperation in the "war on terror".
`No proof of Bin Laden's presence near Kashmir'
BANGALORE: The Indian Air Force (IAF) Thursday (Dec 2) denied its surveillance aircraft had spotted terrorist leader Osama bin Laden near the frontiers of Jammu and Kashmir recently.
No proposal to ground Mirage fighters: Mukherjee
NEW DELHI: The government has no proposal to ground the Mirage 2000 fighters that played a key role in evicting Pakistan-backed intruders in the 1999 Kargil border conflict, the Lok Sabha was informed Thursday (Dec 2).
India, Russia to hold first army exercise
NEW DELHI: India and Russia Thursday (Dec 2) announced they would hold their first-ever joint army exercise next year and increase their investment in a joint venture that makes the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.
India warns Pakistan against stirring border trouble
JAMMU: India Thursday (Dec 2) warned Pakistan against tampering with the delineation of the border in Jammu and Kashmir by uprooting and readjusting pillars marking the frontier.
India to conduct more tests of BrahMos missile
BALASORE: India is likely to conduct more tests of the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos and surface-to-air missile Trishul over the next two months from a test range in Orissa, military sources said.
157 pilots killed in MiG crashes
NEW DELHI: A total of 157 Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots have been killed in crashes involving MiG fighter jets between 1971-72 and 2004-05, parliament was informed Wednesday (dec 1).
India, Russia discuss defence cooperation
NEW DELHI: Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov met his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee here Wednesday (Dec 1) to discuss steps to boost defence cooperation, including the joint development of hardware and military exercises.
Bell in race for Indian Army's 60-copter deal
BANGALORE: Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., the US-based world's leading helicopter manufacturer, is in the race for selling about 60 high-altitude helicopters to the Indian Army.
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