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Sanctions to 'erode' in five months

Aziz Haniffa
India Abroad Correspondent in Washington

United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage informed members of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans on Tuesday that the remaining sanctions imposed on India after its May 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests, would be lifted on a staggered basis over a period of four to five months.

But during a briefing he provided the caucus in room 2200 of the Rayburn Office Building, he was circumspect on the dreaded 'Entities List' and gave no indication that doing away with this list would be part of the elimination of sanctions against New Delhi.

Senior sources who attended the meeting told India Abroad that Armitage, when reminded by the Democratic co-chair of the caucus, Representative Jim McDermott of Washington, that trying to develop a strategic relationship with India was an oxymoron when that country was still under sanctions, replied that the State Department experts on the issue "want the sanctions to erode away over a period of four to five months."

"They don't want to eliminate them in one bang," he said, according to the sources.

The sources said that when pressed on the Entities List, Armitage said the administration did not have a time frame on that, but that it would be under review.

This means that while the lifting of sanctions would envisage military-to-military exchanges and the resurrection of US support for assistance to India from multilateral institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank, the Entities List would prevent India obtaining sophisticated military equipment and any other dual-use technology.

Armitage briefed the members at length on his recent visit to India to brief the government on President George W Bush's National Missile Defence proposal and the detailed meetings he held with External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and also his discussions with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi.

Armitage, who informed the caucus members of his "very good meeting" with Singh during which "we talked about everything", the sources said, acknowledged that he was pleasantly surprised at India's response to the NMD proposal and Delhi's agreement in principle with Washington to work toward the reduction of nuclear weapons.

He noted that there had been a belief that India would react strongly against the NMD proposal "and would not at all be happy" about it, but that he "welcomed" the positive response he received.

Armitage also disclosed to the members the contents of President Bush's letter to Vajpayee where he had clearly stressed his desire "to build a relationship with India that was not dependent on a third country", obviously referring to China, and that Washington's ties with India would stand on its own merits.

In the letter, Bush had also accepted Vajpayee's invitation to visit India, but Armitage had said it was unlikely that such a visit would take place before fall this year. Thus, though he said no dates had been fixed, he spoke of consultations going on between the two countries to fix a mutually convenient date for the visit, which at best would be late this year or sometime in the first half of 2002.

When some members, particularly Rep Ed Royce of California, the Republican co-chair of the caucus, and Frank Pallone, New Jersey Democrat, founder and former co-chair of the caucus, wanted to know if a military-to-military relationship with India was in the offing, Armitage was again circumspect.

One source said, "There was no real response from him about that -- whether it was going to happen or not", save for his noting that General Henry H Shelton, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, would be making a 10-hour stopover in New Delhi next month and meeting his military counterparts.

Meanwhile, he expressed immense satisfaction at the way the joint working group on terrorism between the US and India had been "really working so well" and said a high-level team from New Delhi would be visiting Washington soon to continue the talks.

With regard to Pakistan, the sources said Armitage clearly indicated that the four-to-five-month time frame for lifting sanctions against India would not apply to Islamabad because, in addition to the same sanctions imposed against India, it was subject to many other laws, including section 501, which denies all economic and military aid to a country where the democratically elected government is ousted in a military coup.

But in reply to a question from Rep Alcee Hastings, Florida Democrat, he acknowledged that the US would most likely agree to provide Pakistan with a one-time waiver to obtain some military spare parts to beef up its UN peace-keeping forces, which are envisaged to serve in Sierra Leone.

He also acknowledged that the US had not made much progress in encouraging Pakistan to return to civilian rule.

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