Defence, energy and space on agenda for John Kerry's India visit

John Kerry’s India visit (23-25 June) promises to be quite substantive and well diversified on a vast range of bilateral issues but will have a laser beam focus on five areas: energy, space, defence, science and technology and higher education. The dark horse among all these may well be space as India and the US are all set to take the next giant step in this very important area where China is investing billions of dollars. Kerry, who will probably be the first United States Secretary of State to visit so early in his tenure (he took over just five months ago), is slated to have a substantive interaction with his Indian interlocutors on Monday (practically the whole day) and Tuesday (early morning before his departure). Kerry’s official interactions, after his arrival in New Delhi on Sunday afternoon, include the 4th Indo-US Strategic Dialogue on 24 June, a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a few hours later and a Higher Education Dialogue with Human Resource Development Minister Pallam Raju on Tuesday morning. [caption id=“attachment_898247” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Space is also on the agenda: Reuters[/caption] An important indicator of the kind of intensive discussions Kerry and top American officials are going to have is available from the kind of officials who are travelling with him for the India-leg of his 7-nation Asia tour. They include the new Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the Pacific Commander Admiral Locklear, the Science and Technology Administrator, the Nasa Director, the USAID Director, all of whom are heads of Departments and nomenclature is a tad misleading otherwise, and senior officials from the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security. Vikram Doraiswamy, Joint Secretary (Americas) in the Ministry of External Affairs, said in response to a question from this writer that shale gas exports from the US to India and Defence Trade Initiative (DTI) were quite high on the Indo-US agenda during Kerry’s talks with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and other interlocutors. “Shale gas is a very important part of what we want to talk to the United States about. We are very interested in the opportunity for expanding our energy cooperation. We already have an India-US Energy Dialogue which is co-chaired by Deputy-Chairman Ahluwalia sahab, and by the new Energy Secretary. That next round is to take place in India. So, we will be offering dates for that. But over and above the discourse, this has verticals relating to new and renewable energy, hydrocarbons, coal, power, etc,” Doraiswamy said in response to a question from this writer at a briefing by the Ministry of External Affairs on Kerry’s visit on 21 June evening. Doraiswamy elaborated his response thus: “Our interest in the hydrocarbons piece is particularly strong now as the US is on its way to becoming a net exporter of energy, both in the acquisition of energy resources, in terms of getting permission to import gas from the United States based on the US law that currently requires prior clearance of all exports to non-FTA signatory countries with the US. So, a number of our companies have already lined up purchase agreements with US companies which require to be cleared by the US Department of Energy. That process is on. We have continued to flag our interest in this over the last several months. We have been assured that the processes will be taken forward and indeed we already have one which has already come through directly for India which will export gas to GAIL. “But we are also interested in the US capacity in terms of technology, capital and regulatory experience in managing shale gas. We need to look at whether we have the resources and if we do have the resources, how best we can utilize them in a manner that secures the interest of the citizens and also deploys the highest possible technology to it. So, this is definitely on the agenda for the Secretary of State’s visit.” Afghanistan will naturally dominate the discussions, considering the fact that India is at complete variance from the Americans on the way they are dealing with highly sensitive issue that has immense national security implications for India. India has time and again made its displeasure known to the Americans the way they have been drawing a line between a “good” terrorist and a “bad” terrorist and the fact that the Americans are now set to have direct talks with the Taliban at a third country in Qatar where the outfit has been officially allowed to open an office. This is a big development for India and New Delhi is deeply aware that Pakistan has made early inroads on the Afghan issue and taken an early lead over India in the great strategic game that is unfolding in Afghanistan beginning with the drawdown of American and NATO troops from February next year. Both India and Afghanistan are of the view that allowing Taliban to open an office in Qatar amounts to giving recognition to a parallel Afghan government. Education will be another key area of Indo-US engagement during Kerry’s trip. Kerry’s talks with the Indian HRD minister on the higher education are coming up a month after Pallam Raju’s US visit. The Ministry of Human Resource Development is rolling out a large number of community colleges in India. Two hundred new community colleges are to come up in the next few months using existing facilities and the US will be a partner to a very large number of these colleges. The Higher Education Dialogue is slated to be big, intensive, day-long event and the two sides will flag mark specific cooperation items for technical education. After Kerry and Raju launch the Higher Education Dialogue, it will be carried on thereafter at the Secretary-level through the day which will include Vice-Chancellors from Indian universities and education specialists. ————— The writer is a Firstpost columnist and a strategic analyst who can be reached at bhootnath004@yahoo.com.