AK Antony with Robert Gates in New Delhi on Wednesday. Picture by Prem Singh

New Delhi, Feb. 27: India has told the US that it is uncomfortable with the idea of on-site inspection of US military equipment imported for Indian armed forces.

Defence minister A.K. Antony is said to have told visiting US defence secretary Robert Gates that the two sides needed to work around laws that require such physical checks, a highly placed defence ministry source said here today.

But these hitches would not be allowed to tell on military-to-military relations that both sides concluded were intensifying “satisfactorily”.

“We want to make it clear that there are no hard-line positions. Both sides are willing to meet more than half-way to resolve the issues,” the defence ministry official said.

“For example, on the End-User Agreement, we can give guarantees and give them access to records. I believe that whatever small areas of differences there are can be sorted out.”

He was referring to two agreements proposed by the US for sale of US military equipment. The first is the End-User Agreement and the second is the Communication Inter-Operability and Security Memorandum of Agreement.

Under US law, military equipment transferred to another country has to be verified periodically for assurance of legitimate use. In simple terms, the US would want to ensure that equipment it sells to India is not re-sold or moved to a country like Myanmar on which it has imposed sanctions. India has re-sold British-origin maritime aircraft to Myanmar in the past.

The Indian side is said to have requested for a detailed brief of the memorandum to assess its implications. This discussion would be at the level of the military sub-groups under the supervision of the secretary-level India-US Defence Policy Group that oversees defence relations between the two countries.

Antony is also said to have told Gates who inquired on the progress in signing a logistics support agreement that India will inform the US of its views shortly. The agreement, which would ensure turnaround facilities for US ships and aircraft in India and vice-versa, has been pending in the Indian Cabinet Committee on Security for two years after being vetted by the armed forces headquarters. The Left strongly opposes the agreement.

“We need to look at various aspects of it in detail and we will revert to it in due course,” Antony was quoted as having told the US defence secretary.

Gates also met leader of Opposition L.K. Advani today. He stressed that the nuclear deal was good for both countries and explained its merits to Advani.

Advani conveyed to Gates the BJP’s position on the deal that it should be re-negotiated.