India rejects US advice on gas pipe

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh today conceded that India and the US differed in their perception of Iran, with Washington offering to replace Iran in helping New Delhi develop technologies to meet its growing energy needs.

At a joint press conference here today, on a question with regard to plans of Indo-Iran gas pipeline, Rice said Washington's concerns were "well known".

She said on the broader question of India's energy needs in the next decade, that the US could help through new and sophisticated technologies in this field.

But India rejected any US chaperoning on Iran. While stating that India was conscious that Iran must fulfil its responsibilities as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Singh said discussions between Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer and his Iranian counterpart were progressing well and that India had no problems with Iran.

"We have traditionally good relations with Iran and we expect Iran to fulfil all obligations under the NPT," he said.

India is unlikely to renege on its relationship with Iran, even if there is the US pressure, because among many actions of friendliness, Iran stood alone in the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) to back India against charges of human rights violations in Kashmir in 1994.

Rice allayed Indian concerns on the sale of F-16s to Pakistan (Singh warned about the "complications" that this might cause) and said there had been no such agreement with Islamabad and "I do not expect any such announcement" during the course of her visit to South Asia, including Pakistan.

Pakistan had contracted to buy and paid for F-16 aircraft from the US more than two decades ago, but because of the Pressler Amendment that prohibited arms sale by the US to a country that had developed the nuclear bomb, could not take delivery of the aircraft.

India has let it be known to the US that sale of these aircraft to Pakistan, which plans to use them against India, would not be a friendly act.

Oddly enough, in an interview to NDTV, Rice said the US wanted to see "military balance" and "peace" in the region.

On India's efforts to become a permanent member of an expanded UN Security Council, Rice said there had been "great changes" in the world and international institutions would have to accommodate those changes. She said an ambassador had been designated by the US to address UN reform and talk to the countries involved.

Singh said the world of 2005 had nothing to do with the world of 1945 when the UN was set up after the World War II and drastic reform in the UN was needed. This was not an easy exercise and Japan, Germany and Brazil were in the race for permanent membership of the Security Council along with India, he added.

Obviously the US has a "very, very important role" in this crucial exercise, he said.

Rice cited evidence of India's power and influence in the way it handled the issue of the tsunami, she said. This indicated that India's refusal to accept aid offered by the West had not undermined in any way, Indo-US relations.

Before her talks with Singh, Rice had a 30-minute meeting with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Both Rice and Singh endorsed each other's position on Nepal and agreed that King Gyanendra had to roll back his actions of 1 February.