December 17, 1999

The Government of India has always maintained that unilateral restrictive measures against India are unjustified and counter-productive. When the Entities List was announced by the US Government, we had expressed serious reservations and indicated that it was over-broad in its reach and coverage.

We had welcomed the US Congress advice that the Entity List should be reviewed. The dropping of 51 Indian Entities is, in that context, a step in the right direction. It is our expectation that it will lead to the complete abolition of this restrictive list.