New Delhi, April 4: India and the United States are busily denying the fact that 200 Iranian naval cadets had received military training in Kochi to ride over the immediate crisis in Washington where American legislators seem to be uniting to reject the Indo-US civilian nuclear energy agreement. Foreign secretary Shyam Saran went so far as to assure an angry Democrat, Mr Tom Lantos, that the two Iranian warships which had docked in Kochi for five days were just paying a normal "courtesy call", although there is sufficient information here that the visit was more in the nature of "training" than a courtesy mission.
The Democratic Congressman appears to have singlehandedly put the Manmohan Singh government into denial mode over its entire relationship with Iran. In fact, as recently as October last year, Iran had commemorated 3,500 Indian soliders who had died fighting for the British in Iran in the first and second world wars. Buglers were flown in from India to play the Last Post for the soldiers in a grand ceremony organised by the Iranian government. Under the NDA government, New Delhi and Tehran had sought to give some shape to their strategic relations in an agreement reached during then President Syed Mohammad Khatami’s visit here as the Republic Day chief guest in 2003.
Mr Saran told reporters in Washington after his meeting with Mr Lantos that he had succeeded in persuading the Democratic legislator that no such military training had been imparted to the Iranians, and that "this was one of the several courtesy visits which take place from countries all over the globe." He said that "this was an Iranian naval training ship which made a port call, which is normal activity." Mr Saran sounded almost apologetic in clarifying: "Somehow, somebody had given the impression that India is engaged in training the Iranian Navy or there were some exercises that took place, which is completely misleading." The MEA spokesperson, in response to a question on this issue on Tuesday, said he had nothing to add to Mr Saran’s comments.
US state department spokesperson Adam Ereli, briefing reporters in Washington, insisted that the ships’ visit was a "limited type of event and does not suggest Indian training or Indian contribution to Iranian military capabilities." He said: "Our understanding is that there were ship visits by two ships with naval cadets from Iran into an Indian port. They were not training programmes, they were ship visits with naval cadets."
Sources said that the two Iranian warships, IRIS Bandar Abbas, a modified training ship, and IRIS Lavan, an amphibious assault vessel, docked in Kochi port on March 3 with 174 cadets, 13 midshipmen and 18 trainee sub-lieutenants. The defence spokesperson, Captain M. Nambiar, was quoted in the media at the time as saying: "This is the first time in several years that two naval ships from Iran are here. They are really excited about their experience here and have returned with good memories."
The "courtesy call", the sources said, saw intense five-day interaction between the two militaries. The Iranian cadets were taken to different professional training schools of the Southern Naval Command. They also received some firsthand training in watermanship and on the ship handling simulator. Naval teams of both sides played volleyball and football matches. The ships were received on arrival by Commodore G.V. Babu, chief staff officer (operations), and an Indian naval band. The officers on board the ships called on the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command, Vice-Admiral S.C.S. Bangara. In defence parlance, the five-day event would come under the "training" category, with Mr Lantos’ anger about continuing India-Iran cooperation not "misplaced."
The Atal Behari Vajpayee government, despite its proximity to the US, had made no bones about the need to strategise relations with Iran. It had been agreed at that time that India would maintain Iran’s mostly Russian-supplied hardware and also train Iranian Navy personnel. In fact, naval exercises had been held by the two navies in the Arabian Sea under the NDA government. India had also agreed to service Iran’s four Russian Kilo-class submarines. In another major development, both New Delhi and Tehran had decided to develop a series of ports and roads linking Iran to Afghanistan and the Central Asian republics.
There is no sign of these agreements now, with India distancing itself from Iran in a bid to win support from the US Congress for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W. Bush’s civilian nuclear energy agreement. The Washington Post has said as much in a news report, pointing out: "The United States on Monday confirmed that two Iranian Navy ships had visited Indian ports last month, but played down the contact as the Bush administration struggles to win congressional approval for a landmark US-India civilian nuclear energy deal." It has gone on to state in the same report: "India, once leader of the nonaligned movement, has insisted on maintaining good ties with Iran, which Bush has called a member of the ‘axis of evil’, with prewar Iraq and North Korea. But it voted with the United States and most other countries to report Iran’s non-compliance with nuclear safeguards to the UN Security Council after US members of Congress warned (that) a failure to do so would jeopardise the nuclear deal."
http://www.asianage.com/
The Democratic Congressman appears to have singlehandedly put the Manmohan Singh government into denial mode over its entire relationship with Iran. In fact, as recently as October last year, Iran had commemorated 3,500 Indian soliders who had died fighting for the British in Iran in the first and second world wars. Buglers were flown in from India to play the Last Post for the soldiers in a grand ceremony organised by the Iranian government. Under the NDA government, New Delhi and Tehran had sought to give some shape to their strategic relations in an agreement reached during then President Syed Mohammad Khatami’s visit here as the Republic Day chief guest in 2003.
Mr Saran told reporters in Washington after his meeting with Mr Lantos that he had succeeded in persuading the Democratic legislator that no such military training had been imparted to the Iranians, and that "this was one of the several courtesy visits which take place from countries all over the globe." He said that "this was an Iranian naval training ship which made a port call, which is normal activity." Mr Saran sounded almost apologetic in clarifying: "Somehow, somebody had given the impression that India is engaged in training the Iranian Navy or there were some exercises that took place, which is completely misleading." The MEA spokesperson, in response to a question on this issue on Tuesday, said he had nothing to add to Mr Saran’s comments.
US state department spokesperson Adam Ereli, briefing reporters in Washington, insisted that the ships’ visit was a "limited type of event and does not suggest Indian training or Indian contribution to Iranian military capabilities." He said: "Our understanding is that there were ship visits by two ships with naval cadets from Iran into an Indian port. They were not training programmes, they were ship visits with naval cadets."
Sources said that the two Iranian warships, IRIS Bandar Abbas, a modified training ship, and IRIS Lavan, an amphibious assault vessel, docked in Kochi port on March 3 with 174 cadets, 13 midshipmen and 18 trainee sub-lieutenants. The defence spokesperson, Captain M. Nambiar, was quoted in the media at the time as saying: "This is the first time in several years that two naval ships from Iran are here. They are really excited about their experience here and have returned with good memories."
The "courtesy call", the sources said, saw intense five-day interaction between the two militaries. The Iranian cadets were taken to different professional training schools of the Southern Naval Command. They also received some firsthand training in watermanship and on the ship handling simulator. Naval teams of both sides played volleyball and football matches. The ships were received on arrival by Commodore G.V. Babu, chief staff officer (operations), and an Indian naval band. The officers on board the ships called on the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command, Vice-Admiral S.C.S. Bangara. In defence parlance, the five-day event would come under the "training" category, with Mr Lantos’ anger about continuing India-Iran cooperation not "misplaced."
The Atal Behari Vajpayee government, despite its proximity to the US, had made no bones about the need to strategise relations with Iran. It had been agreed at that time that India would maintain Iran’s mostly Russian-supplied hardware and also train Iranian Navy personnel. In fact, naval exercises had been held by the two navies in the Arabian Sea under the NDA government. India had also agreed to service Iran’s four Russian Kilo-class submarines. In another major development, both New Delhi and Tehran had decided to develop a series of ports and roads linking Iran to Afghanistan and the Central Asian republics.
There is no sign of these agreements now, with India distancing itself from Iran in a bid to win support from the US Congress for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W. Bush’s civilian nuclear energy agreement. The Washington Post has said as much in a news report, pointing out: "The United States on Monday confirmed that two Iranian Navy ships had visited Indian ports last month, but played down the contact as the Bush administration struggles to win congressional approval for a landmark US-India civilian nuclear energy deal." It has gone on to state in the same report: "India, once leader of the nonaligned movement, has insisted on maintaining good ties with Iran, which Bush has called a member of the ‘axis of evil’, with prewar Iraq and North Korea. But it voted with the United States and most other countries to report Iran’s non-compliance with nuclear safeguards to the UN Security Council after US members of Congress warned (that) a failure to do so would jeopardise the nuclear deal."
http://www.asianage.com/
