India, despite its staunch support for the Palestinians, has intensified high-level contacts with Israel including talks on a possible purchase of an Israeli AWACS plane, officials said Tuesday.
Highly-placed defense ministry officials said New Delhi was evaluating an offer for Israel's Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.
India began scouting around for AWACS for its air force, the world's fourth largest, after a locally-built prototype crashed in January 1999.
Defence ministry officials said negotiations for AWACS were on with "several parties."
"They are still at a very preliminary stage which means we have not really shortlisted any supplier," a defense ministry official told AFP.
Israeli defence ministry's director general Amos Yaron visited India last week to try and promote several arms deals, including the possible sale of the Phalcon, the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot said Sunday.
The Israeli embassy here confirmed the visit but declined to provide any details about the trip.
"The visit was kept under wraps," an Indian foreign ministry source said. "Yaron did not meet Defense Minister George Fernandes but he talked with everybody and anybody who matters in these regards."
A defense ministry official said India was still scouting for AWACS.
"We are looking at all possible options and Phalcon happens to be one of them," he said.
India needs at least two AWACS in the near future for its 1,200-aircraft air force.
New Delhi in April secretly leased a Russian AWACS for a month and then returned the system as it fell below the expectations of the Indian Air Force, a military source said.
Russia, India's closest political ally, accounts for 70 percent of the military hardware in New Delhi's inventory.
The defense ministry official said the purchase of AWACS could run into rough weather because of the US-led sanctions on such supplies imposed on India following New Delhi's string of nuclear tests in May 1998.
"The sanctions are still there which will lead to other complications and no one knows what would be possible.
"But yes, we can say that in the case of the Phalcon, there is no pressure on Israel as of now from the US," he said.
The United States, Israel's closest ally, provides the Jewish state with three billion dollars in military and civilian aid each year.
The United States earlier this year blocked Israel from selling the Phalcon to China.
Former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, who visited India last month, tried to allay fears that Washington could shoot down a possible Indian purchase of the aircraft.
"The main reason why the US is against sale of Phalcons to China is Taiwan," Peres said. "India is not involved in Taiwan."
The Indian defense ministry official said both Russia and Israel were in the race to sell AWACS to the Indian Air Force.
New Delhi and Moscow are expected to rewrite an existing strategic treaty during President Vladimir Putin's state visit here in October to make room for more imports of new military hardware from Russia.
India, which established diplomatic ties with the Jewish state in 1992 after a 40-year hiatus, is keen on intensified military cooperation with Israel especially in the field of counter-insurgency.
The Arab world, however, accuses the pair of seeking to develop nuclear ties.
Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh visited Israel in June on a five-day visit while Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani was in the Jewish state the same month – NEW DELHI (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
