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US Reaffirm Nuclear Deal With India

Umesh Rajan Malhotra - 10/25/2005

The United States has reaffirmed its commitment to implementing the July 18 nuclear agreement between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President George Bush in Washington. US Under-Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, who is in New Delhi, to discuss implementation of the civilian nuclear deal between the two countries, said the Bush administration was working "very hard" and looking forward to the Congress passing the historic resolution.

Addressing a joint press conference at in New Delhi with Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, on October 22, 2005, Burns said that both New Delhi and Washington were fully committed to the responsibilities and practices enjoined in the July 18 agreement.

"We have been talking to the Congress," Burns said adding that while some members supported, some opposed. "We are a democratic country...We hope some progress on this agreement can be put in place," he said.

Burns and India's Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, who held talks on the nuclear issue, also discussed areas of cooperation between the two nations.

Saran, while admitting that it was difficult, echoed Mr. Burns' statement saying both countries were committed to it and India had already delivered some of the commitments on issues like WMD and is already conforming to the Non-Proliferation Regime.

Saran hoped that by the time President Bush visits India early next year, the two sides would have an "implementable agreement".

The visiting US Under-Secretary of State also met Indian External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh. The two leaders are understood to have reviewed bilateral ties, witnessing progress particularly after the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush in Washington in July.

Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh during his visit to Washington in July this year conveyed to the Bush Administration that New Delhi "would reciprocally agree that it would be ready to assume the same responsibilities and practices and acquire the same benefits and advantages as other leading countries with advanced nuclear technology, such as the United States."

After intensive talks between President George W. Bush and visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a joint statement between the countries said that "The US president would seek agreement from Congress to adjust US laws and policies" and the "United States will work with friends and allies to adjust international regimes to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation and trade with India".

These would include "expeditious consideration of fuel supplies for safeguarded nuclear reactors at Tarapur", the US-built facility near Mumbai to which Washington defaulted and stopped supplying low-enriched uranium after it signed the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty in 1974.

In return, India has agreed to put its civilian nuclear facilities under international safeguards, continue its unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing and agree, among other things, to international export control regimes relating to nuclear and missile technology.

Current US law and international regime obligations permit civilian nuclear cooperation only with nuclear weapons states (states that detonated a nuclear device prior to 1967) or with non-nuclear states that accept full scope international safeguards.

The shift in U.S. nuclear policy and President Bush's commitment to transfer civilian nuclear technology to India has evoked diverse responses and commentaries in India as well as in the United States.

Reports reaching India from America suggest that U.S. officials and lawmakers want to ensure that the proposed nuclear deal with India will not weaken the U.S. commitment to non-proliferation.

Analysts say that till date, Washington had been unable to push the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to lift international nuclear restrictions on India, nor has there been much progress in the domestic front, as many US lawmakers, cutting across the political divide has opposed the Bush-Manmohan Singh agreement.

Some US lawmakers felt that making an exception for India, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, might set a precedent for other countries to seek similar access to nuclear technology.

In India, the Prime Minister is facing opposition from his Leftist allies for voting with the US against Iran in last month's IAEA meeting in Vienna.

Indian industry analysts are also divided on the issue. Some say that India should wait for the U.S. Congress to amend the rules, while others argue that the separation of facilities into military and civilian is a common practice among the nuclear weapon states and there are country specific agreements that individual states enter into with IAEA.

Some say that if the IAEA negotiates an additional protocol agreement similar to the symbolic ones that apply to the five original nuclear-weapon states, India would be permitted to exclude military-related facilities and even portions of civilian facilities on "national security" grounds. As a result, India might continue to use spent fuel from power generation reactors to acquire plutonium for weapons.

Energy hungry India is looking all options to generate electricity and industry experts say nuclear power is the best available option for the country to meet its growing energy need. Experts suggest that between oil and gas and nuclear energy, the later should be the India's priority.

As a matter of fact India is a huge and growing natural-gas market. According to the US-based Energy Information Administration, natural gas use in India was nearly 25 billion cubic meters in 2002 and is projected to reach 34 billion cubic meters in 2010 and 45.3 billion cubic meters in 2015.

It may be noted that India has an active and largely indigenous nuclear-power program and expects to have a 20,000MW nuclear capacity by 2020. Currently India has 15 nuclear power plants in operation and nine more under construction. Both India and Pakistan use indigenous uranium as they are outside the NPT and hence excluded from trade in nuclear plants or materials, which has hampered their development of civil nuclear energy.

Some observers point out that the Bush administration's agreement on July 18 to ease restrictions on nuclear reactor exports to India was part of Washington's response to helping India meet its energy demands.

It may be noted that July agreement has opened new door for India. Developed countries like Canada and France are now ready to help India in getting nuclear fuel. Though it is quite early to finalise any such deal but initial indications are positive signals for India.