Senator Joe Biden
This is in the year 1992 when Biden was a Democratic Party senator from Delaware. In America, as the President of the Republican Party, George Bush Sr. was taking all the important decisions. The Soviet Union had collapsed and Russia was beginning anew as a separate country. The command of this new country was in the hands of President Boris Yeltsin. On the other hand, the era of economic reforms had started in India.
In January 1991, India signed a deal worth Rs 235 crore with Glavkosmos, a space agency of the Soviet Union. Under this deal, India was to get seven cryogenic engines. Apart from this, talk of transfer of technology was also made. India needed this engine for its Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) project.
America’s opposition
India also had an offer from France for this engine, but that offer was about 1000 crores. In such a situation, India rejected him. There was a lot of politics in America over this deal and it was led by none other than Biden. In those days Russia was at the mercy of Western countries. The US opposes the sale of cryogenic engine technology.
The US said that this deal violates the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) of 1987. However, experts said that cryogenic engines are for space rockets and they are of no use for ballistic missiles. In such a situation, this technology cannot be used in the military.
Russia’s bet
In May 1992, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations put a condition for this deal. The condition was proposed by Bush. The US government placed a condition in front of Russia that $ 24 billion in financial aid would be given to Russia. But if it goes ahead with the deal on the cryogenic engine contract with India, then this help will be blocked. Biden was a member of the committee for 50 years. He introduced an amendment to block US aid on the transfer of missiles, nuclear or nuclear weapons to Russia.
Biden said – the deal is dangerous
On May 14, 1992, the Los Angeles Times wrote, ‘Biden thinks selling cryogenic engines to India may be dangerous.’ Biden said in a statement, ‘I have full confidence that the leaders of Russia will have some sense, they will try to avoid this deal by understanding the danger of losing their financial aid.’ Biden said that this is not a small deal but is fraught with danger. Not only this, India’s space organization ISRO and Glavkosmos were also banned from America.
India had to wait
In 1993, Yeltsin met the new US President Bill Clinton and here he succumbed to American pressure. Russia decided to give seven engines to India but refused to transfer technology. In July 1993, India announced that it would develop its own cryogenic engine. The initial budget for this project was Rs 280 crore.
In the year 2010, an attempt was made to launch GSLV with this engine but it was unsuccessful. In January 2014, India finally beat the US by launching its indigenous cryogenic engine. Due to a decision by Biden, India took 15 years to develop this engine.