India delays decision on container security pact with U.S.

Published 13 July 2007

Indian cabinet was yesterday supposued to ratify India’s participation in CSI; cabinet delays decision pending U.S. clarification on tying CSI to non-priliferation pact

The Indian cabinet was supposed to have cleared an important proposal for partnering with the United States in the U.S. Container Security Initiative[CSI] yesterday, but has now deferred the decision until next at the urging of the minister of external affairs Pranab Mukherjee. The decision will now be taken only after two senior Indian officials return from Washington after discussions on the civilian nuclear energy agreement.

The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had decided to join the CSI, which is seen in India as a precursor for joining the Proliferation Security Initiative, as mandated by the Hyde Act as part of the conditions for the nuclear deal between the United States and India. Under the CSI, brought into force by the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, U.S. personnel will be posted at overseas ports to “identify high-risk containers,” prescreen and evaluate containers before they are shipped to U.S. ports, and ensure these objectives through high-grade technology and “smarter, more secure” containers.

The Asian Age’s Seema Mustafa writes that the cost of particpating in CSI will be shared by the two countries. Equipment determined as essential to detect and screen the containers by U.S. personnel will have to be purchased by the host country. In a reciprocal move, and in order the address criticism of CSI from Hindi nationalist quarters, the United States is allowing India to station a team at a United States port ostensibly to screen containers being shipped to India. The measure is clearly symbolic, as no expects that weapons of mass destruction will be loaded onto a container moving out of the United States for India.

At all the other forty-four ports around the world that have accepted CSI, the detection targets only U.S.-bound containers.