Indo-Russian Relations: The Cryogenic Rocket Deal ∗

Quoted in Telegraph (henceforth T) Calcuta. 30 Jan. 1997. p. 1. See also Aviation Week & Space Technology (henceforth AW & ST). New York. 1 Feb. 1993. p. 59. The present author has borrowed the phrase ‘Russian enigma’ from Dillon E.J. . The Eclips of Russia. George H. Doran Co, New York. 1918. Ch. 1. pp 1–10.

T. 28, 29, 30, 31 Jan. 1993. The rupee-ruble exchange rate remained controversial. however, For the 10-point Delhi Declaration of November 1986. Security in the Asia-Pacific Region. The Soviet Approach. Novosti. Moscow. 1988. pp. 29–32. For an analysis. Jyotirmoy Banerjee. “Moscow’s Indian Alliance”. Problems of Communism. Washington DC. Vol. XXXVI, No. 1. Jan-Feb. 1987. pp. 8–9.

The Statesman Calcutta, 1 Feb, 1993, p. 1.

T. 2 Mar, 1993, p. 5.

Upadhyay Ramkrishna . “Reaching for the Skies”. T. Weekend Supplement. 17 July 1993. p. 1. Indo-US space cooperation dates back to the early 1960’s when the US supplied India with high altitude experiment rockets. India’s Thumba launch site was built in cooperation with both the US and the USSR. In the 1970’s and 1980’s the USA helped India with her INSAT satellite programmes. India had to pay the USA a total of $130 million for the first 3 INSATs. Also, India’s satellite launch capability would help save about one-third of the costs involved in a foreign-aided launch.

Besides the US and the USSR. West Germany and France also cooperated significantly with India’s space programme. See von Welck Stephan Freiherr von Krosigk Siegfried . Weltraumpolitik Indians and Japans. Forschungsinstt. der Deutschen Gesellschaft fuer Auswaertige Politik. Bonn. Arbeitspapiere No. 36. Dec. 1985. pp. 26–28; p. 47. note 83 for INSAT costs: Govt, of India. Dept, of Space. Annual Report 1982-83. Bangalore, pp. 40–42 (henceforth DOS report).

UDMH is unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine. NTO stands for nitrogen tetroxide. DOS report, ibid.. p. 19 features photo of ‘UDMH impeller’. Vikas developed with French aid. Isro seems to have been working on “booster propellant formulations” since at least the early 1980’s. p. 17: production trials of UDMH were underway in Hyderabad at that time. p. 37. On UDMH and other volatile rocket propellants. Darsl Robert . “Disposal of Liquid Missile Propellants”, appendix 1-F in Allison Graham et al. (ed.). Cooperative Denuclearization. From Pledges to Deeds. CSIA Studies in International Security. No. 2, Harvard Univ.. Cambridge. MA. Jan. 1992, pp. 79–86.

Darst. Ibid .. p. 81

T.. Aug. 26, 1993. p. 1. UDMH vapours may form explosive mixtures with air. and if it is spilled, spontaneous combustion may occur. Darst. Ibid.. p. 80. Fire disasters have also struck earlier Soviet and US launches. For the latter case, national Aeronautics & Space Administration. The Early Years, Mercury to Apollo-Soyuz, Kennedy John F. Space Center, no date. p. 4. MTCR impacted on Isro’s programmes in that the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV). which was supposed to pave the way for the heavier geosynchronous launch vehicle (GSLV). failed its mission on 20 Sept. 1993 to put a statellite into space. T . 21 Sept. 1993. p. 1.

On MTRC. Mussington David . “Missile Production and Export Controls”, appendix 7-B, in Allison, op. cit.. pp. 221–5, and Bailey Kathleen C. . “Can Missile Proliferation be Reversed?” Orbis. Philadelphia. Vol. 25. No. 1. Winter 1991. pp. 5–14. MTCR involves 2 categories of controlled items. Category I includes complete rocket systems while category II comprises of propulsion and guidance components, and propellants and equipment to make them. Bailey, ibid .. p. 9.

US Dept, of State. Secretary Shultz. The INF Treaty: Strengthening U.S. Security. Washington DC. Current Policy No. 1038: The Moscow Summit. Selected Documents No. 28; US Arms Control & Disarmament Agency. “The INF treaty: What’s In It?” Arms Control Update. Washington DC. Jan. 1988. No. 3. pp. 4–5.

Iraqi missiles were upgraded to 1,000 km range; China supplied Saudi Arabia with CSS-2 intermediate-range missiles and Pakistan with M-11 missiles (over 450 km); France, an MTCR member, nevertheless offered sale of rocket technology to Brazil and India in 1989 but put it on hold under US pressure: and Russia held talks with Iran and China on missile exports. A large number of Third World states are MTCR ‘suspects’. Bailey, op. cit.. pp. 5-8. See also “Cruise Missiles Becoming Top Proliferation Threat’. AW & ST. Feb. 1, 1993. pp. 26–27.

Carter Ashton B. , Cote Owen , “Transport Storage, and Dismantlement of Nuclear Weapons”, in Allison, op. cit .. pp. 87–88. Of an estimated 25.000 nuclear weapons inherited from the USSR, only 2,000 are being destroyed annually. Bardehle Peter . “Kooperative Denuklearisierung. Ein neues Konzept der amerikanischen Sicherheitspolitik and seine Probleme”. Europa Archiv. Bonn. Vol. 48, No. 5, 10.3.93. p. 144 (henceforth EA).

Mussington . op. cit., p. 222. Also AW & ST. May 24, 1993, 22–23, 26.

T., 29 Jan. 1993. p. 1.

T., 7 May 1993. p. 4.

T., 12 June 1993. p. 1. 24 June 1993. p. 5. Two summits took place before and about this time, camp David (Feb. 1993). and Washington (June 1993).

T., 1 July 1993. p. 1.

T., 4 July 1993. p. 5.

T., 4, 5, 6 July 1993. Dr. Rao separately held talks with US Vice-President Albert Gore and others in the USA. Upadhyay, op. cit .

T., 11 July 1993. p. 1.

T., 10 July 1993. p. 1.

T., 19 Aug. 1993. p. 4.

T., 11 July 1993. p. 4. On Russia’s space industry. Covault Craig Rybak Boris . “Russia revamping aerospace industry”. AW & ST, June 7. 1993. pp. 58–61. The latest round of power struggle in Moscow, at this writing, took place on 22 Sept 1993 when the conservative Vice-President Alexander Rutskoi was declared acting President by the Parliament in a bid to oust Yeltsin one day after the latter dissolved the law-making body. Yeltsin, however, seemed to enjoy Army support. T., 23 Sept. 1993. p. 1.

India’s Ambassador in Moscow. Ronen Sen. received in mid-July an official notice on the backout by Glavkosmos under a ‘force majeure’ clause of the 1991 rocket agreement. T., 18 July 1993, p. 1.

T., 17 July 1993, p. 1.

T., 20 July 1993. p. 5.

T. ibid.

AW & ST, Feb., 1. 1993. pp. 57–59 and May 24, 1993. pp. 22–23.

T., 1 Aug. 1993, p. 1.

T., 3 Sept. 1993, p. 1.

The formal structure of Russia’s sensitive export decision making as presented here has been extapolated from appendix 7-A. Allison, op. cit., pp. 216–220.

Ibid .. p. 220.

Zagorski Andrei , “Developments in the CIS: Challenges for Russia”. Aussenpolitik, Hamburg. Vol. 44. No. 2. 1993. pp. 144–152 (English ed.).

All of them are suspicious of the ‘central’ govt. in Moscow. Dawydow Juri J.P. Trenin Dmitrij W. . “Ethnische Konflikte auf dem Gebiet der ehemaligen Sowjetunion. Muster, Aussichten and wahrscheinliche Konsequenzen fuer das Ausland”, EA. Vol. 48.

Ibid .. p. 179. See also Hurd Douglas . “Russia after the referendum”. NATO Review, Brussels. Vol. 41. No. 3. June 1993. p. 8.