Monday, July 11 2005 14:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: The Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today (July 11, 2005) said the framework agreement on the US-India Defence relationship signed recently between the two countries was not aimed at joining arms race.

"The agreement was not aimed at joining any arms race", Mukherjee said, adding that, "We are not interested in procuring arms".

His comments came as the Left Parties including CPM (Communist Party of India Marxist) and CPI (Communist Party of India) stepped up their campaign against the agreement asking the Government not go into such strategic partnership with USA, "That deflects the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Government from the Common minimum programme".

Speaking at the annual general meeting of Indian Paint Association (IPA) here, Mukherjee said that agreement would help India in getting technology transfer and also to ensure that there was no sudden disruption in supplies during period of hostilities because the reliability of US as a supplier is poor.

"I have spoken to CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary A B Bardhan already explaining the rationale for signing the agreement. I will also speak to RSP (Rashtriya Samajwadi Party) and Forward Bloc to convince them.

"Every political party has its own view. I will try to convince them.

Mukherjee said that the goal was to attain self-reliance in Defence preparedness, for which the Indo- US pact would also help in co-production of equipment.

Referring to Defence production in the country, he said that although the private sector was allowed in Defence production four years ago, there was hardly any company becoming operational even after getting letters of intent (LoI) from the Government.

"To study the problem the Government appointed a committee headed by Vijay Kelkar which has already submitted first part of the report", he said.

In this regard, he said that recommendations made by Kelkar Committee in its first report would be considered by the Government. The second part of the report would be submitted shortly, he said.

Talking about production in the Defence sector, he said that 8 PSUs and 39 ordinance factories, the licensed private units and the DRDO would help the country in carrying out research and development activity and produce quality products and competitive prices.

Asked about Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Defence, he said that 26 per cent was already permissible in India.