India Gets OK to Buy Advanced U.S. Computer

India and the United States signed agreements Friday paving the way for India’s purchase of an advanced computer, the first U.S. sale ever of a computer using sophisticated technology to a non-Western country and a nation with close ties to the Soviet Union.

The deal was made after India settled for a less sophisticated system than it had asked originally, ending an embarrassing stalemate days before Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to Washington, officials said.

India first had sought to buy a dual-processor XMP-24 supercomputer manufactured by Cray Research Inc., of Minnesota, an advanced system Washington viewed as too sophisticated, for security reasons, to be made available to India.

The agreement calls for the sale of another, less sophisticated Cray computer, the single-processor XMP-14. India is the first Third World nation given clearance to purchase the XMP-14, which has been sold only to Washington’s Western allies and the Arabian-American Oil Co.

$20-Million Deal

In Washington, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said permission for the $20-million sale was part of “our expanding high technology relationship with India which includes not only the sale of advanced computers but also technology to permit the manufacture of computers.”

Foreign Ministry officials said two agreements were signed by U.S. Ambassador John Gunther Dean and Indian Foreign Secretary K.K.S. Menon. The first agreement covers the computer sale and the second sets guidelines for future U.S. computer exports to India.

Signing of the agreements sets a better tone for Gandhi’s visit to Washington, scheduled to begin Oct. 20. Relations between the two countries came under strain after Gandhi’s first visit to the United States in 1985, mainly because of U.S. arms sales to Pakistan, India’s foe in three wars.

An Indian government spokesman said that India, currently suffering a serious drought, needs the supercomputer “for use in monsoon research and other agricultural research activities.”