Logistics support involves berthing or fuelling facilities for ships and planes and could even mean joint operations by Indian and US forces.
Pranab says one more agreement with US in offing
NEW DELHI: External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s admission on Wednesday that India is actively considering a logistics support framework agreement with the US is likely to raise the hackles of the UPA’s Left allies.
Logistics support involves berthing or fuelling facilities for ships and planes and could even mean joint operations by Indian and US forces.
However, the minister made it clear that the framework agreement was only for disaster relief and peace time operations and not armed action.
“The agreement will not affect the independence of India’s foreign policy. The logistical support that will be provided in disaster relief operations abroad will enhance India’s ability to assist affected countries,’’ Mukherjee said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The minister’s statement comes at a time when the Left parties have conditionally allowed the government to go ahead with negotiations with the IAEA for an India-specific agreement, the first in a series of steps to get the nuke deal in place.
In fact, atomic energy commission chief Anil Kakodkar began preliminary talks with IAEA big boss Mohamud El Baradei in Vienna on Wednesday.
Very little has come in about the discussions in Vienna, which at best will go into broad parameters of the safety agreement, leaving it to technical teams to go into details.
Though the Left had asked the government to go ahead, Politburo member Sitaram Yechury has warned the government would have to pay a heavy political price if it overstepped the understanding reached with the Left.
The government has promised to go back to the Left before finalising the safeguards arrangement with the IAEA.
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