India and the US said on 20 July they had agreed on an “end-use monitoring pact”, enabled by an “end-user verification agreement” that will create enormous trade opportunities for both countries. The agreement will facilitate the sale of sophisticated US arms to India, and provide US companies with exclusive access to sites on which to build two nuclear power plants.
Indian external affairs minister SM Krishna and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced both outcomes at a joint press conference which concluded Clinton’s first trip to India as Washington’s top diplomat.
Clinton said she and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh had discussed the question of sites where US power companies would build nuclear power plants to help India overcome an energy deficit. She encouraged India to proceed with legislation governing nuclear power that would free billions of dollars of investment and transform the lives of India’s people.
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Clinton stressed the democratic principles shared by the US and India, saying they were the foundations of one of the strongest international partnerships. “We believe co-operation between our two countries will be a driver of progress in the 21st century. We will work not just to maintain our relations but to broaden and deepen them,” she said.
The end-user verification agreement (EUVA) has been contentious in India, prompting strong objections from left-wing groups. However, having convincingly defeated the left-wing parties in the recent general election, India’s ruling coalition was able to finalize the EUVA, which is a legal prerequisite for the participation of US arms companies in Indian defence projects.
The formalized agreement is significant as it is expected to boost US military sales in the billion-dollar Indian arms market. The agreement comes alongside another US-India deal, which boosts US cooperation in India’s ambitious space programme. The end-use monitoring pact gives the US the legal right to monitor military hardware it has sold to India, while the space cooperation agreement paves the way for US technology to be used in India’s satellites.
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