India eyes Brazil for military hardware,
and more By Ramtanu Maitra
At
New Delhi on December 1, visiting Brazilian Defense
Minister Jose Veiges Filho and his Indian counterpart
George Fernandes signed a defense agreement that will
explore the possibilities of cooperating in
air-surveillance systems, as well as in exploring
co-production and co-development of aircraft, warship
building and sub-systems such as software avionics and
ordnance, according to Indian Defence News.
The
defense agreement was signed during the two-day visit to
India by the Brazilian defense minister. A few days
earlier, India had finalized the purchase of six
executive jets from the Brazilian aviation company
Embraer, worth more than US$600 million. Analysts point
out that the India-Brazil defense agreement has the
potential to go far beyond the purchase of the Embraer
jets, and that India's real interest is in procuring the
air-surveillance system used in Brazil's SIVAM project.
SIVAM, which stands for "System for Vigilance over the
Amazon", is a $1.4 billion system that has been designed
to provide surveillance of Brazil's immense and
relatively underdeveloped Amazon rainforest region.
The objective of the SIVAM project, which was
conceived in the 1990s but then ran into funding
problems, in addition to its usefulness in the anti-drug
war, was to monitor and curb a number of actions
detrimental to the environment, specifically in the
Amazon region, such as illegal deforestation. As a
result, some observers noted, the SIVAM project was
supported by environmentalists in agreement with
industry executives that the surveillance system could
be used for the direct and overt protection of
environmental concerns.
SIVAM meets India's
requirements The Indian interest in the SIVAM is
centered around providing real time information on the
illegal cross-border militant infiltration that takes
place along the Line of Control in the state of Jammu
and Kashmir, which has been a thorny issue between India
and Pakistan for more than five decades.
Fernandes, accompanied by the Indian army deputy
chief of staff, was in Brazil on a six-day official
visit earlier in the year. During that visit, Fernandes
learned of the SIVAM project. He also visited the
Embraer facilities in Sao Jose de Campos and military
establishments in Rio de Janeiro.
On July 25,
2002, Brazil's then president Henrique Cardoso
inaugurated the SIVAM's initial operating ability,
developed by Embraer and another Brazilian firm, ATECH,
in cooperation with the US corporation Raytheon.
Raytheon-supplied sensors - including synthetic aperture
radars, multispectral scanners, optical infrared
sensors, high frequency direction finding equipment and
communications and non-communications exploitation gear
- have been installed onto three remote sensing
aircraft, modified versions of the Embraer ERJ-145.
SIVAM's air traffic controls (ATC) and associated
airspace surveillance provide Brazil, for the first
time, with a comprehensive monitoring capability
throughout the region. The system will contain 14
state-of-the-art Raytheon fixed base air traffic control
radars and six transportable radars, supplemented by
five existing government-furnished ATC radars.
These ground-based radars are augmented by five
newly developed SIVAM airborne radars, also adapted
ERJ-145s, outfitted with Raytheon and Swedish sensors.
Collectively these radars provide an area-wide
monitoring capability permitting vastly enhanced
counter-smuggling, border surveillance and law
enforcement operations over an area the size of the
United States west of the Mississippi.
Besides
the SIVAM project, which has definitely interested New
Delhi, India is keen to develop its own airborne early
warning and control (AEW&C) system and install it on
the Russia-supplied IL-76 frame. This is where Brazil
surely can step in and help. The top AEW&C players
in the US include Northrop Grumman, the Boeing Company
and the Raytheon Company. Several other nations, such as
Brazil, Israel, France, Britain, Sweden, the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), Russia and China, however, have
developed their own products and have begun to compete
in what has heretofore been a US monopoly in the
AEW&C market.
AEW&C systems consist
essentially of an aircraft platform and ground-control
units. The aircraft is equipped with powerful radar
housed in "top hats", rotodomes or nose-mounted radome
suites used for long-range surveillance. The airplanes
tend to be commercial frames that are customized for
military use. Operators on board the aircraft control
the radar and can direct warplanes in the theater
through voice and data links, while they coordinate
activities with the command and control (C2), and ground
units.
AEW&C systems currently competing in
the international market include Northrop Grumman's
multi-role electronically scanned array (MESA), mounted
on a Boeing 737-700 jet. Israel Aircraft Industries'
ELTA Phalcon package can be modified and carried by
aircraft ranging from a 707 to the Illyushin-76.
Brazil's Embrarer employs the EMB-145 business jet to
take Sweden's Ericsson ERIEYE electronics package aloft.
India has good reason to show interest in the ERIEYE, a
joint development effort by the Swedish Ericsson and the
Brazilian Embrarer.
Closer India-Brazil
relations Nonetheless, it would be unwise to
consider the SIVAM project as the only reason why these
two large nations are getting together in the
security-related area. Cardoso visited India in 1996,
and this was returned by former Indian president K R
Narayanan in 1998.
It is, however, the
initiative of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, who came to assume his post in October, 1999,
and the emergence of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as the
president of Brazil last year, that provided the
momentum for the recent developments. In his inaugural
speech, Lula cited India as one of the priorities of
Brazilian foreign policy. Vajpayee and Lula met at
Lausanne, Switzerland, on June 2 this year.
In
July 2001, India's minister of petroleum, Ram Naik,
visited Brazil with the purpose of gathering data on the
Brazilian experience of mixing ethanol to gasoline
(PROALCOOL). Increasingly dependent on foreign oil,
while simultaneously emerging as one of the largest
sugar producers in the world, India has a natural
interest in the production of ethanol.
A
bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the
matter was signed between India and Brazil in April
2002. This document recognized Brazilian expertise in
manufacturing ethanol, and called for joint research on
bio-diesel. A mission from Brazil representing the
Ministry of Development, Industry and Commerce and
entrepreneurs from different sectors involved in the
PROALCOOL, including the automotive sector, visited
India in 2002. In April 2002, the India-Brazil
Commercial Council was launched, and the two countries
signed a MoU on technology-sharing and undertaking joint
studies on blending ethanol with petrol and diesel.
Strategic cooperation The new council
was launched at a gathering of the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry and visiting Brazilian
Minister of Development Industry and Commerce, Sergio
Silva do Amaral, who led a 33-member
official-cum-business delegation to New Delhi.
On information technology, the two countries
have also begun to collaborate. India, being one of the
leaders in this area, provided the necessary momentum.
Pramod Mahajan, Indian Minister for Information
Technology, Communications and Parliamentary Affairs,
visited Brazil in 2001. Subsequently, a working group
was set up to develop a cooperation program on
e-banking, e-governance and electronic certification
systems training, among other areas. The working group
has already met twice, both in Brazil and India.
In February 2002, India's then-Minister of
Science and Technology, Murli Manohar Joshi, visited
Brazil, and his visit was reciprocated by his Brazilian
counterpart, Ronaldo Sardenberg, in October 2002. A
managing committee and a high-level scientific council
were designated to recommend ways and means of
implementing bilateral cooperation. In October 2002, the
president of the Brazilian Council for the Development
of Science and Technology headed a mission on
biotechnology to India, and the two sides subsequently
signed an agreement which will generate joint research
in areas such as medicine, agriculture and
bio-informatics.
But of all the trips, perhaps
the most significant one was the visit to Brazil by
Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha in June,
at the invitation of Brazil's counterpart. The presence
of businessmen in the delegation of Minister Yashwant
Sinha made it evident to the Brazilians that the Indian
government has moved away from supporting only its
public sector enterprises and is now providing help and
support to private-sector initiatives. During Sinha's
visit, India and Brazil affirmed the unanimity in their
views on most of the world's leading issues.
Both took note of the fact that while
Brazil-India relations have vast economic and strategic
potential, the momentum has only begun to pick up in
recent days. Bilateral trade, which turned over an
average $200 million annually in the mid-1990s, stood at
$488.7 million in 2000, and had grown almost 70 percent
one year later, totaling $828.1 million. In 2002, Brazil
exported $653.6 million to India and imported $573
million, totaling $1,227 million. In addition to the
increase in the volume of trade, greater diversification
has occurred over the years in the items exchanged
between both countries.
Also during Sinha's
visit, on June 6, a historic trilateral Brazil, South
Africa and India meeting took place in Brasilia to
announce the formation of a new economic grouping, the
G-3. South Africa's foreign minister had traveled to
Brazil for the special meeting, which was taken note of
all around the world because it took place soon after
the G-8 meeting at Evian, France, where the heads of
state of these three countries had discussed the global
situation.
The Brasilia Declaration that
followed put special emphasis on respecting the rule of
international law, strengthening the United Nations and
the Security Council and prioritizing the exercise of
diplomacy as a means to maintain international peace and
security. The three also agreed on the need to reform
the United Nations, in particular the Security Council.
They stressed the necessity of expanding the Security
Council in both permanent and non-permanent member
categories, with the participation of developing
countries in both categories.
Subsequently,
Brazil supported the induction of India as a permanent
member of the United Nations Security Council. There was
also unanimity between the three in identifying
terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, drugs
and drug-related crimes, transnational organized crime,
illegal weapons traffic, threats to public health, in
particular HIV/AIDS, natural disasters, and the maritime
transit of toxic chemicals and radioactive waste as
major security threats to the peace of all nations.
At the same time, the coordination between India
and Brazil in multilateral economic fora has become ever
more important for both countries, as became evident in
the IV Ministerial Conference of the World Trade
Organization in Doha in 2002. On that occasion, Brasilia
notes that India's support of the Brazilian proposal was
instrumental in the approval of the Declaration on
Intellectual Property and Public Health.
Comparable technology bases The
optimization of India-Brazil cooperation will, however,
depend on how well they can move jointly in three areas:
space, nuclear power for commercial use and the aviation
industry and its sub-systems. These are all strategic
areas and the related technologies are jealously guarded
by the developed nations. They also involve large
capital investments.
But Brazil and India must
move in these three areas, along with South Africa,
because the G-3 can only make a real impact on behalf of
the developing nations as a whole when they optimize
their vast skill, manpower and potential to "free" these
areas from the developed nations' oligopoly. There is
little doubt that if these three nations put their right
foot forward with adequate will and commitment, help may
come in from some of the G-8 nations. It is almost a
certainty that China would help.
India and
Brazil can break the technological oligopoly of the
developed nations because both have developed
indigenously a huge array of technologies in these
areas, and have developed as good a quality of skilled
and specialized manpower as any developed nation can
claim.
Both India and Brazil have well-advanced
space programs. The Indian Space Research Organization,
which is now celebrating its 40th anniversary, is in the
process of planning for an un-manned moon mission in
2007. India has mastered rocket launching step-by-step,
from the rocket that went up 200 feet in 1963 to the one
that now puts indigenously-developed Indian INSAT groups
of satellites into geo-stationary orbit. No one at this
point in time doubts India's capability to send rockets
to the moon, either.
The Brazilian program is
younger, but has shown vigor. The Brazilian Complete
Space Mission, intending to develop the whole cycle of
space technology, was approved in 1979, with an initial
goal of design, development, launching and operation of
four small-size, low-orbit data collecting satellite
(SCDs) and remote sensing satellites (SSRs), including
the ground facilities and a laboratory for integration
and testing; design, development and construction of a
satellite launching vehicle (VLS); and design and
implementation of a launch center at Alcantara (CLA).
The program was later expanded, and its past and future
programmed launches are: SCD1 (1993), SCD2 (1996), SCD2A
(1997), SCD3 (1998), SSR1 (1998).
Brazil was an
early member of Intelsat. Embratel used Intelsat
capacity not only for international connection, but also
leased capacity that was used by the Brazilian long
distance operator, Telebras, for connection to remote
regional centers.
Brazil's rocket program is
centered on the VLS, a four-stage rocket comprised of a
core and four strap-on motors. The first, or booster
stage, has four solid fuel motors strapped to the center
second-stage core motor. The VLS is designed to deploy
100 to 380 kilogram satellites into 200 to 1,200
kilometer equatorial circular orbits, or to deploy 75 to
275 kilogram payloads into 200 to 1,000 kilometer polar
circular orbits. Configured as a missile, the VLS could
fly 3,600 kilometers with a 500 kilogram payload.
Brazil's rocket programs reportedly use Russian carbon
fiber technology for the rocket motor cases. The press
has reported, for example, the sale of test benches for
liquid-fueled rocket motors developed with the
assistance of Russian scientists, and instruction by
Russian scientists in the use of liquid propellants.
In January 1996, Cardoso signed a bilateral
accord with India on the use of nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes, which included clauses on
technological and scientific information exchange. With
neither country being a signatory of the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the prospect of their
utilizing nuclear power for non-violent means raised a
red flag in the face of the nuclear-weapons states and
many skeptical observers around the world. The proposed
bilateral nuclear cooperation did not go anywhere.
Brazil, constantly under the thumb of
international financial institutions, could hardly move.
India, on the other hand, has developed a complete
independent nuclear fuel cycle. It is now in the process
of developing power reactors fueled by thorium and
building a prototype 500 MW fast breeder reactor. In
addition, Indian scientists and engineers are in the
process of scaling-up their own 230 MW Candu natural
uranium reactors into 500 MW reactors. It must be said
that India, a non-signatory of the NPT and Missile Test
Control Regime, has succeeded in preserving both its
nuclear and missile programs, and progressing in both.
Brazil, which reportedly possesses the largest
untapped quantities of thorium worldwide, suspended
experimentation and research with the substance over 10
years ago. It is worth noting that shortly after Cardoso
had given a call for increased bilateral trade between
the two countries and his support for permanent Indian
membership on the UN Security Council in 1997, in Bonn,
Germany, the non-governmental organization Capoib lodged
a formal protest against an EU Amazon project.
Capoib, the umbrella organization for groups
supporting the effort to preserve the homelands of
indigenous peoples of the Amazon, protested Brazilian
government reforms concerning the demarcation of native
lands in the region. It was obviously a pressure tactic.
Brazil may consider countering this obvious move with
some pressure of its own in the area of nuclear power
for commercial use.
In addition to the three
areas mentioned above, two other strategic areas exist
where these two countries should cooperate. In Brazilian
exporters' view, one of the most promising sectors is
agribusiness, particularly the soybean complex, sugar
and meats segments. According to one exporter, despite
the investments that have been made and the measures
taken to increase soybean crushing and refining
domestically, India has still been increasing its
soybean oil imports from Brazil. "In 1997, we sold a
mere $23 million of the product; last year, Brazilian
soybean oil exports surpassed $401 million," one
Brazilian farm expert said.
The second strategic
area is the crucial pharmaceuticals sector, controlled
by a handful of "big fish" in the developed world.
Indian pharmaceutical laboratories, which are big
exporters of generic medication around the globe, are in
the process of forming joint ventures or installing
factories to operate in Brazil. The pioneers in this
area were the Reddy Laboratory and Ranbaxy (producer of
Lamivudina, a generic medicine used in the anti-AIDS
cocktail), which launched joint ventures in Sao Paulo in
1998 and 1999, respectively. Aurobindo, Strides Arcolab,
Zeus (Core Health Care/Claris Lifesciences) and Torrent
followed suit after an official visit by Brazilian
Minister of Health Jose Serra to India in July 2000.
Various other Indian laboratories are also scouting the
country to form associations or install representation.
Clearly, there is more to the India-Brazil
relationship than military hardware.
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Dec 11, 2003
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