Legislation offering dual nationality to Indians living abroad could be implemented as early as this summer.

Describing the thinking behind the dual nationality concept, India's Foreign Secretary Shashank told rediff.com in an exclusive interview that it would give NRIs the feeling "that, yes, they are as much a part of Indian cultural, civilizational heritage as they are of their country of adoption and they can come to India whenever they feel like it without first going to an Indian embassy or consulate as an intermediary to give them a visa. That is the kind of feeling which is very important."

Both the US and the UK permit dual nationality and they are on the target list of countries whose Indian-origin nationals would benefit from the change of rules approved by India's Parliament.

Shashank, head of India's foreign service, praised the Indian-American community who he said had helped leverage the vast improvement in bilateral relations between New Delhi and Washington.

"One sees that the role played by the Indian expatriate community in the US acted as the lever for this change of perception about India, when we found that 40 percent of IT engineers had an Indian background or were Indians," he explained.

"There was a feeling that something was going on and that this country of one billion people had a lot of talent and people who were able to take advantage of the knowledge society. So we saw President Clinton taking interest in promoting India-US relations, he also visited India," Shashank, who does not use a last name, added.

At the heart of the new relationship is a strategic partnership agreement that was signed in November 2001 by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and US President George W Bush and reconfirmed by both leaders in January 2004.

Asked how he would define the strategic partnership, Shashank responded, "Instead of talking only about bilateral issues or issues relating to India's region, now we are discussing matters related to global issues, matters relating to other issues as they might develop in different parts of the world -- like Iraq, Afghanistan or other issues as they might come up. Also we are having joint exercises, naval exercises or air exercises. In other fields we are also participating in many seminars together on strategic aspects. We even organized together an ARF (ASEAN Regional Forum) seminar on maritime strategies. Apart from that we have been discussing how we can use dual use items for peaceful purposes for nuclear, for space research and on high technology. And also we have agreed to explore the possibility of an expanded dialogue on missile defence."

Shashank revealed India had offered $30 million assistance to Iraq, but ruled out a deeper role for New Delhi unless it was under the umbrella of the United Nations.

"If we are seen as part of the process whereby the Iraqis get back their own governance and it is a clear cut road map where there is an involvement of the United Nations in this process, then it will become much easier for India to see how it can play a role," Shashank said.

The foreign secretary also touched on the ongoing dialogue with Pakistan, saying,"What we have to do is put all the feelings of hatred, violence and terrorism behind us and then we can move towards the path of peace and security and economic co-operation and economic development.

"This is the new track on which we have been moving. The joint press statement issued by Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Musharraf on January 6 and the documents that have been signed at SARC to move towards a free trade area, including Pakistan and India -- SAFTA -- these are the areas where we feel we can work together. Our regional members are also partners, so we can see that South Asia can now hope to make a much more important contribution to the economic growth in this region."

Analysts have linked Shashank personally to a series of new initiatives to build India's links with some of the world's newly emerging trading blocs.

Commenting on these initiatives, Shashank said, "What we are working on is MERCUSUR and India which includes Brazil, Argentine, Uruguay and Paraguay. We have signed a free trade area agreement last year. This year on the 25th of January we signed a detailed document specifying the commodities and items which will form part of this free trade agreement.

"We have also entered into negotiations with South Africa. Those negotiations are over and now we are waiting to see what can be done between the Southern African Customs Union, SACU and India. The idea is to gradually to extend to  SARC and  South East Asia where we have also free trade area arrangements. Then we can expand our free trade arrangements with Latin America, Brazil as the base; with southern Africa using South Africa as the base."