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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 000155 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/18/2020 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PARM KNNP ENRG PK IN AORC CDG
EAID, IAEA, MNUC, TBIO, UNGA, NPT 
SUBJECT: INDIA SUPPORTS NUCLEAR SECURITY SUMMIT, FURTHER 
WORK ON EXPORT CONTROLS AND EXBS 
 
REF: A. STATE 07493 
     ¶B. STATE 05891 
 
Classified By: A/POL Les Viguerie for Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Director 
of Disarmament and International Security Affairs (DISA) 
Amandeep Singh Gill stated January 27 that the Government of 
India (GOI) was looking forward to a positive and productive 
Nuclear Security Summit and confirmed that Prime Minister 
Singh planned to attend. The government supports the Summit 
as an opportunity to reassure the world that the Indian 
government takes safety and security seriously. The 
Government of India is also optimistic about being able to 
announce a joint Center of Excellence initiative at the 
summit.  The GOI understands that the United States is 
treating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review 
Conference (RevCon) as a separate issue and agrees that broad 
nonproliferation discussion do not belong in the Summit. On 
export controls, Gill said that a response to the export 
controls roadmap was complete and should be passed to 
Washington at appropriate levels in the coming days, but he 
cautioned that export controls policy was a sensitive 
political issue for the Indian government. He supported a 
resumption of the Export Controls and Related Border Security 
(EXBS) program, adding that the government had work to do on 
its own interagency coordination.   End Summary. 
 
INDIA TO ATTEND SOUS-SHERPA MEETING 
 - - - 
 
¶2. (SBU) PolOffs met with Director of Disarmament and 
International Security Affairs Amandeep Singh Gill January 27 
to discuss the February 2010 Sous-Sherpa Summit in the 
Netherlands, the April Nuclear Security Summit and the 
proposed Center of Excellence.  In response to ref A 
demarche, Gill confirmed that an Indian delegation planned to 
attend the February 9-11 Sous-Sherpa Meeting and had already 
discussed participation with the Hague.  The Indian 
delegation to the Summit will consist of Foreign Secretary 
Rao as Sherpa, Dr. Ravi Grover as Sous-sherpa, Venkatesh 
Varma from Geneva, and DISA,s Amandeep Singh Gill. (Note: 
Immediately following the Summit, Gill departs his current 
post for the Indian Embassy in Geneva, where he will play a 
key role on negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament 
(CD) on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT).  End Note.) 
 
NUCLEAR SECURITY SUMMIT:  LOOKING FORWARD TO POSITIVE OUTCOMES 
- - - 
¶3. (SBU) Gill confirmed that Prime Minister Singh planned to 
attend the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. Gill said 
the Indian government was comfortable with the  Summit, and 
appreciated its strategic importance. He stressed that India 
has been actively participating in the lead-up to the  Summit 
and contributing substantive input into the draft Communique 
and work agenda.  He felt that the Communique was close to 
completion. Remaining issues, mostly in terms of scope, would 
likely be ironed out at the Hague in February.  India regards 
the Summit as the start of a process to draw international 
attention to the issue of nuclear security.  Gill underscored 
the importance of building "a platform for cooperative action 
on nuclear security, both diplomatically and internally."  He 
said India supported efforts to build broad international and 
national awareness to the issue, but that the Summit should 
also aim to strengthen existing legal frameworks such as IAEA 
and the UN.  While nuclear terrorism -- particularly by 
non-state actors -- is India's overarching concern for the 
conference, Gill stressed that India did not want to lose the 
confidence of its public or the world community in the face 
 
NEW DELHI 00000155  002 OF 003 
 
 
of its ambitious plans for expansion of its civil nuclear 
sector. 
 
4.(SBU) Gill appreciated and understood the message of Ref B 
demarche on the distinction between the Nuclear Security 
Summit and the May NPT RevCon. He expressed confidence that 
India and the U.S. were on the same page with regards to 
keeping broad nonproliferation issues off the Summit agenda. 
Gill acknowledged that there would be some inevitable overlap 
of these issues, but as long as the NPT regime was not 
brought into the discussion -- and instead discussion focused 
on the IAEA, G8 and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear 
Terrorism -- India did not expect any problems. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Despite the overall positive outlook on the Nuclear 
Security Summit, Gill acknowledged that many of the 43 
countries taking part in the Summit, including India, still 
had minor, yet important differences.  He stressed that the 
Summit would not be the appropriate place to address or 
resolve issues related to the Guidelines for the Management 
of Plutonium (INFCIRC 549), which India was not in a position 
to endorse at this time.  Gill shared that Foreign Secretary 
Rao had expressed this concern in a recent email to the 
President,s Sherpa, Gary Samore. 
 
NUCLEAR SECURITY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE 
- - - 
 
¶6. (C) Gill said DISA has had extensive discussions following 
up on the U.S. Delegation's "excellent presentation" on the 
Center of Excellence proposal discussed on the margins of the 
U.S.-India Strategic Security Dialogue last November.  Though 
there was still much to sort out in terms of focus, structure 
and presentation, he felt confident that the United States 
and India would be able to announce their intentions for a 
joint initiative at the Summit.  Gill reported that the 
Indian delegation had done a great deal of work internally 
thinking about what would be the most valuable way to focus 
the center.  He also said that they were considering how such 
a center should be presented at the Nuclear Security Summit, 
cautioning that it would be very important not to make other 
countries feel excluded from this bilateral initiative.  He 
also acknowledged that a lot of work would need to be done to 
figure out how to operationalize such a center, though he 
acknowleged that some of that work could be done in future 
meetings.  The Department of Atomic Energy, with Dr. Grover 
as lead, would be prepared to present India's ideas for a 
center on the margins of the Civil Nuclear Working Group in 
Mumbai February 2-4. 
 
EXPORT CONTROLS:  ROAD MAP AND EXBS 
- - - 
¶7. (SBU) Gill said that the government would share India's 
formal response to the export controls roadmap in the coming 
days.  The document was complete, but needed to be passed at 
the appropriate level, possibly between National Security 
Advisors.  On a proposed technical delegation led by the 
Department of Commerce to discuss export controls in advance 
of the High Technology Cooperation Group, Gill stressed that 
the U.S. should wait to receive the Indian response to the 
export controls paper before planning to send such a group. 
He stressed that while there may be technical issues that 
could be examined, the export controls issue was of broad 
political concern and thus needed to be handled at high 
levels. "Bogging export controls down in technical details," 
he cautioned, could further complicate the already complex 
bilateral relationship our countries share on these issues. 
Like the civil nuclear agreement, he explained, export 
controls was a barometer of a broader relationship and 
 
NEW DELHI 00000155  003 OF 003 
 
 
discussions needed to be worked out on that level. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Gill was more positive on resumption of Export and 
Border Security (EXBS) cooperation, agreeing that the time 
was ripe to discuss resuming the EXBS program. Gill confirmed 
the government expected to welcome the proposed visit of a 
Megaports/EXBS delegation from Washington in February or 
March. Gill asked for patience as the GOI worked out its 
interagency process to facilitate such a program. The 
challenge for the GOI would be to coordinate their own 
interagency process to ensure that the appropriate agencies 
that would facilitate the EXBS program were fully on-board. 
 
ROEMER