The Hindu : India seeking place in expanded G-8 for sending troops to Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003

International

International - India & World

India seeking place in expanded G-8 for sending troops to Iraq

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA JUNE 23. With the expansion of the U.N. Security Council virtually frozen, India may be aiming for accommodation in an expanded G-8 forum, in return for sending its troops for "stabilising" the internal situation in parts of Iraq.

According to highly placed sources, the differences among nations over the composition of an expanded Security Council are still far too deep. Consequently, the chances of enlarging the Council at any time in the foreseeable future are virtually non-existent. With the Security Council

door virtually shut for a long time, the G-8 grouping of industrialised nations is likely to acquire greater prominence as the world's "high table" where new influential nations can be accommodated.

Sources pointed out that India, China and Brazil could be the new aspirants to what is presently the G-8. Japan and Germany — the other two major Security Council candidates are already a part of this grouping.

The on-going debate over sending Indian troops to Iraq has also revolved on two other aspects. First, India's real economic interests in Iraq, it has been pointed out, do not lie in Indian companies participating as sub-contractors in reconstruction projects undertaken by the western nations,

especially the United Sates. Rather, New Delhi's core interests lie in negotiating with the U.S., the right to participate in tapping Iraq's vast oil reserves.

Iraq is yet to harness a huge amount of its oil, despite possessing the second largest crude reserves in the world.

India and Algeria had been promised rights to look for oil in a lucrative Iraqi field during the regime of the deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

While field studies had been carried out then, India, waiting for the lifting of international sanctions, had not made any investment in that block. The decision to send Indian troops, it has been suggested, should be leveraged in the promotion of India's larger energy security interests.

Second, India can send troops only under the stamp of a U.N. approval and the onus to do so lies with the U.S., the sources said.

Duration and the area of the deployment are other major considerations for sending troops. India, sources said, would avoid positioning its forces in the restive "Shia heartland" of Iraq with Najaf, Karbala and Basra as the nerve centres. Media reports suggest that Indian forces could be deployed in safer mountainous Kurdish areas in northern Iraq, close to the borders with Syria, Iran and Turkey.

There is also a suggestion that Pakistani forces may be sent to guard the inner oil pipeline corridor of the Kurdish areas. Mosul and Kirkuk in northern Iraq are major oil-producing centres and oil export pipelines there head both in the direction of Turkey as well as Syria.

The Indian debate on troop deployment coincides with a fresh U.S. effort to enhance post-war security in Iraq. The U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, announced on Sunday that the U.S. was raising 40,000 troops of a new Iraqi army. The first brigade of around 5,000 men will be formed by July 15.

Jordan meanwhile is stepping in to take command of the local Iraqi police forces, in order to enhance security on the Iraqi streets. It is also set to reorganise the security apparatus in the Iraq's main cities.

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