US and Indian Defence Ministry officials said "increase in military
cooperation and trade" was on the cards. With an eye on the ever
increasing Indian weapons shopping list estimated to touch 5 to 8
Billion dollars a year shortly, Gates said US wanted to increase its
weapons sales to India.Major US armament makers Lockheed Martin,
Raytheon and Boeing jointly lead the American missile programme and
have made a number of presentations to India on their PAC-III anti
missile system as well as war****p borne Aegis system.Noting that India
needed an anti-missile defence, the US today talked about the
possibility of cooperation in developing such a ****eld.
"We understand India"s needs for an anti-missile ****eld," visiting
Defence Secretary Robert Gates told re****ters here as he held talks
with his counterpart A K Antony. Stressing that perhaps a joint
analysis could be carried out, he said the two countries were just
beginning to talk on what India needs would be in the realm of missile
defence and "where cooperation between us might help advance that".
****ging India to conclude the civil nuclear deal at the earliest, the
US today said "the clock is ticking" and there is an "open question"
on whether the Congress will be able to take it up "beyond this summer
and September".
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates also made it clear that his country
was eyeing Indian defence contracts worth billions of dollars, saying
Wa****ngton wanted to have a "place at the table" when New Delhi
procures weapon systems.
"The clock is ticking in terms of how much time is available to get
all the differnt aspects of an agreement implemented," he told
re****ters here just before winding up his two-day visit.
Gates did not specify any time period by which India needed to take
the steps like firming up the IAEA safeguards and seeking waiver from
Nuclear Suppliers Group.
He, however, made the deadline clear as he said: "with this being an
election year, there is an open question about how long the Senate
will be in session beyond this summer and September.
After the India-IAEA Safeguards Agreement and waiver from NSG, the
nuclear agreement has to go back to the US Congress for another vote.
Without directly mentioning the stiff opposition by Left parties to
operationalisation of the nuclear deal, he said the US respects
India"s internal politics and hopes that the government would resolve
the issue in time.
The US Defence Secretary also met senior BJP leader L K Advani, whose
party is also opposing the deal, in an apparent bid to seek his
sup****t.
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