Round The World
New
Delhi, 22 April 2015
Checkmating
China
TAPPING
TRANS-ATLANTIC AID
By Ashok B
Sharma
At a time when China is busy in
extending its ‘String of Pearls’ in the Indian Ocean with an intention to
encircle India, New Delhi has worked out an alternate strategy to checkmate
Chinese ambition by inviting Trans-Atlantic powers in the region. On his recent
visit to Pakistan, President
Xi Jinping signed a $46 billion agreement for 3,000 km China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC) which will connect Gwadar in Pakistan
to China's
western Xinjiang region. This CPEC will be a network of roads, railway and
pipelines between the long-time allies and would give Beijing
direct access to the Indian Ocean. China’s “all weather” friend, Islamabad has thus become its centre of
“pivotal importance”.
Comparatively, New
Delhi’s long cherished dream project of using Iran’s Chabahar port for connecting with Afghanistan and beyond to Central Asia and
Europe and thus isolating Pakistan
has not progressed well given the difficulties of implementation owing to
sanctions imposed on Tehran.
India
became involved in the project in 2002 and since then the progress has been
tardy. After the new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed
office, India
in October last year decided to invest $85.21 million in developing the port.
It also decided to invest an annual revenue expenditure of $22.95 million to
support the efforts.
However, sensing the growing
presence of Beijing’s “String of Pearls” in Pakistan, Sri
Lanka and Myanmar,
Modi has rightly favoured the involvement of Trans-Atlantic powers to stem
Chinese ambition in the region. The major takeaways from his recent
Trans-Atlantic tour to France,
Germany and Canada were to
raise the India-Canada bilateral relations to the level of strategic
partnership and seeking Canadian involvement in defence research technology. He
appreciated Canada’s
keenness for Observer status at SAARC.
Modi also urged France for enhancing its cooperation in the
maritime domain, particularly in the Indian Ocean
region. India intends to
work closely with France in
realising the objectives enshrined in the Charter of Indian Ocean Rim
Association in which Paris
enjoys Observer status. Modi and President Francois Hollande stressed the
importance of joint military exercises between their armies, navies and air
forces. French Carrier Battle group will participate in the joint naval
exercise, Varuna, in the Indian Ocean in the
coming weeks.
India very much acknowledges
US “pivot” and its “rebalancing” game in the Asia-Pacific. The need for US presence not only in the Pacific but also in
the Indian Ocean was emphasised in the joint
statement during the last visit of President Obama. There were also talks for
expanding the India-US-Japan trilateral. India also has bilateral military
exercises with some countries in the Asia-Pacific.
The most important deal struck in
matters of security with France
during Prime Minister Modi’s visit was to pave the way for acquiring 36 Rafale
jets in fly-away condition for the Indian Air Force. Modi and President
Hollande agreed to ease the process through an Inter-Governmental Agreement
(IGA) that will be on terms better than those offered by Dassault Aviation in
the course of over three years of negotiations. It was agreed upon that the
delivery of Rafale jets would be “in time-frame that would be compatible with
the operational requirement of IAF and that the aircraft and associated systems
and weapons would be delivered on the same configuration as had been tested and
approved by IAF and with a longer maintenance responsibility by France.”
According to India’s Defence
Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2013, purchases under IGA need not follow the
standard procurement procedure and standard contract document but can be based
on mutually agreed provisions. It now depends upon how the IGA would be worked
out and the terms to be stipulated relating to pricing, delivery schedule,
training and maintenance.
So far, Modi has sought to address
the urgent needs of the Indian Air Force by seeking to cut the delay and hoping
for better terms. His much touted concept of ‘Make in India’ and
technology transfer are not addressed in this agreement. But the eagerness to
purchase 36 Rafale jets right away is a bold step keeping in view the low
allocation for capital expenditure in the current year’s Defence Budget, which
is not sufficient for mega deals in the pipeline like tanker aircraft deal with
Airbus, two helicopter contracts with Boeing and Rafale fighter deal. Modi did
visit the Airbus Facility at Toulouse when he
was in France.
Another major takeaway from Modi’s
France visit is the agreement between L&T and the French company AREVA for
reducing the cost of Jaitapur nuclear power project by increasing localization
in the spirit of ‘Make in India’, transfer of technology and development of
indigenous nuclear energy industry in India. An agreement was signed between
NPCIL and AREVA for early conclusion of techno-commercial study for
construction of six 1650 Mwe nuclear power plants so that all parties – AREVA,
Alstom and NPCIL – can firm up their price and optimize all provisions for
risks.
In Canada
an agreement was inked for long-term supply of uranium to energize nuclear
power plants in India.
Canada also agreed to share
its pressurized heavy water reactor technology with India. Both France and Canada
have supported India’s
membership to four multilateral export control regimes and have assured India for
intensifying their cooperation in space technology.
Also Modi got assurances of
cooperation from all the three Trans-Atlantic countries for his pet projects –
modernization of railways, including semi-high speed trains, renewable energy
projects, smart cities, heritage cities, skill development, river Ganga cleaning among others. Major agreements were not
signed with Germany as
Chancellor Merkel is expected in India for the third
Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC) in October, this year.
Modi’s visit to Canada was the first visit by an Indian Prime
Minister after 42 years and he did his best to rope in Prime Minister Harper to
address India’s
security concerns and nuclear energy security. He has thus laid the template
for India’s cooperation with
Trans-Atlantic countries for addressing security concerns in Asia-Pacific and balancing
with the growing ambitious role of China in the region. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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