"Yes, it`s true that in some areas we would have liked to see more momentum. Still, I`m proud of the progress we`ve made, and I think that the relationship between the United States and India is stronger, broader and deeper that it has ever been," he said. Indicating a possible end to the longstanding denial of sophisticated dual use technology to India, Obama said the US Defence Department was working to sort it out.
He maintained that such technology, involving items which have civil and military use, was being given to India and that Pentagon "is working to address those occasional cases where we do not". Acknowledging that there were "benefits" of providing such technology to New Delhi, Obama said "Given all the interests and values we share, I`m confident that we can continue to work through any differences."
Obama`s assurance comes in the backdrop of bickering between the two countries over dual use technology which has been denied to India for decades, particularly after it was put on the so-called entities list. Denial of such technology has hit India`s defence and space programmes amid fears in certain circles in the US that the sophisticated technology may be misused for military purposes, particularly nuclear weapons programme.
After Obama`s India visit in 2010 the US government had announced the removal of 9 Indian space and defence-related organisations from the entities list. However, the chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) V K Saraswat went public recently with the complaint that though the embargo had been lifted nothing had changed "in practice". There had not not been even a 10 per cent implementation.