Hillary Clinton Signs Arms Agreement with India

“Ever since the exit of George W. Bush from the White House, his admirers in India have been a worried lot. They have been wondering nervously about the fate of the “strategic partnership” and the future of dangerous regional rivalries promoted during his days. They are happier after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to the country. They seem less concerned on both counts.

What has dispelled their gloom is a document signed during her visit: an end-use monitoring (EUM) agreement on US military supplies to India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government has not tabled the text of the agreement in Parliament or shared it with the public so far. But a fair idea of its content is available from disjointed statements, official and quasi-official, made in the course of discussions.

The agreement is based on section 40 (a) of the US Arms Export Control Act, which asks the US administration to ensure, ‘to the extent practicable, (that) such program shall be designed to provide reasonable assurances that the recipient is complying with the requirements imposed by the United States Government with respect to the use, transfers, and security of defense articles and monitoring of U.S. arms transfers, and security of defense articles and services’…”

source: truthout.org