By IANS
New Delhi : India is likely to take a decision on joining the US-led Container Security Initiative (CSI) next week which will help secure its ports from becoming victims of terrorists using cargo containers to transfer weapons of mass destruction.
“It is expected to come next week. The external affairs minister wanted to work on some more points on the issue,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told reporters here.
The issue was to come up before the cabinet Thursday.
The CSI was discussed here last month between K.C. Singh, additional secretary in the external affairs ministry, and US acting under secretary for non-proliferation John C. Rood during the two-day talks on non-proliferation.
If the cabinet take the decision to join the CSI, Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) will become the first to become part of the CSI – an ambitious programme designed by the US after 9/11 attacks to insulate its ports and maritime trade from terrorists.
Four Indian Customs officers will be posted to the National Targeting Center, the CSI’s intelligence and information hub at Washington, and four US homeland security officers will come to JNPT in Mumbai.
Talks on India joining the CSI were initiated in 2002. During the visit of US President George W. Bush to India in March last year, New Delhi showed interest in joining this multi-national security programme.
Fifty-nine ports in 27 countries are presently part of the CSI.
The CSI envisages a security regime to ensure that all containers, which pose a potential terrorism risk, are identified and inspected at foreign ports.
The CSI, a reciprocal programme, offers its participant countries the opportunity to send their customs officers to major US ports to target ocean-going, containerized cargo to be exported to their countries.
Likewise, the Customs and Border Protection, the unified border agency of the US, shares information on a bilateral basis with its CSI partners.