International - India & World   

India asks weapon exporting countries to relax technology control laws

— Photo: PTI

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Defence Minister A. K. Antony with the conductor of the Air Warriors Symphony Orchestra at the opening of the India Pavilion at the ILA-2008 Berlin Air Show. India is a partner country for the first time in this 99-year-old Air Show.

BERLIN: India has asked major weapon exporting countries to relax their technology control laws if they wish to participate in the country’s defence modernisation programme which will touch $ 50 billion (Rs. 2 lakh crore) over the next five years.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony told this to The Hindu after inaugurating the air show here with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

This is the first time in the exposition’s century-old history that India has been named the partner country.

“We don’t want to project India only as a market [for defence platforms]. Indigenisation is our first priority. We want to buy but only with countries willing to completely transfer technology to us. The future is co-development and co-production,” the Minister said.

His observation runs counter to the decade-long trend that has seen India emerge as one of the world’s topmost importer of defence products.

In his meeting with the German leadership, Mr. Antony said he had sent a clear message to the Western world to stop looking at India as a market for dumping defence equipment. “I told them India is a responsible country. They should further relax their export control laws as far as India is concerned. They said they would look at the issue positively,” Mr. Antony said.

He said that the air show provided a good opportunity for India to project its defence capabilities but since the country had demonstrated that it was a historical non-proliferator, it was time the West started dealing with India positively as far as defence technology was concerned. “We cannot shift totally to the concept of full indigenisation otherwise our modernisation will be affected. But we will do business only with countries willing to transfer technology,” the Minister asserted.

He assured that the revision of the defence procurement procedure would be effected before the envisaged timeline of September this year and all procurements will be conducted on the basis of quality, competitiveness and price. “There will be total transparency. The occasion [Berlin air show] gives India to show her emerging capabilities,” he said. At the India Pavilion here public sector companies were scouting for partnership opportunities which included a $ 80 million deal to produce an upgraded version of the Dornier aircraft which India has been providing to friendly countries in the region to beef up their surveillance capabilities.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Pressure mounts on Olmert to quit
Praise for Nepal’s information panel
Taiwan leader in China
Amnesty International slams West over human rights
Deadlock over Iraq government continues
A decade of restraint since we entered nuclear club: Pakistan
LTTE-held territories captured
Obama: Britain will be “full partner”
Dawn of a new age
India asks weapon exporting countries to relax technology control laws

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu