India may agree to physical checks on US defence equipment

Left with no option, India may agree to US physically inspecting defence equipment it sells to Indian armed forces and the End-User Verification Agreement (EUVA) for the purpose will come up for finalisation during US Under Secretary William Burns' visit here from June 10 to 13.

"The next meeting on EUVA may take place during Burns' visit to India and the matter would be dealt by the External Affairs Ministry," senior Defence and External Affairs
Ministry officials said here on Friday.
    
Though India would not want the clause of physical verification included in EUVA, it may concede to the US insistence, as it was mandatory under their laws, but after
the concerns of both sides are addressed in the final draft.
    
"Ideally, we (India) would not want to have this clause at all (in the agreement with the US). Our concern is we cannot allow the equipment to be intrusively inspected,"
the officials said. "We do not have such agreements with other countries, except for an undertaking. But only the US has this law and we realise that it is a requirement. We are sure the concerns of both sides would be factored into the final EUVA draft," they
added.

Once EUVA, on which all future defence supplies from the US would hinge, is signed, India would like to go in for the other two bilateral agreements, Communication
Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) and Logistics Support Agreement in that order, they said.

 The basic concern of the US with regard to the critical defence equipment it sells to India was that it should be used only for the purpose of armed forces operations, internal security, legitimate self-defence and civic action.
    
"We have no quarrel on this front and are prepared to allow inspection of inventory and accountability records. But the US is insisting on physical verification, which is central
to its laws," the officials said. This would mean that the US experts would have to
visit Indian military bases and sensitive installations.

"This is not acceptable to us, as it will leave us a bit vulnerable. We would not like any on-site inspection. We are trying to work around this by carefully wording the draft agreement," they said. Though US assured India that the verifications would
be carried out only if there were "credible complaints" of misuse, New Delhi sought further clarification and clear definition of what it meant.