Indo-US deal could open N-trade for Pakistan, Israel
By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, Dec 11: The Indo-US nuclear deal would ultimately allow Israel and Pakistan to buy nuclear material from international suppliers, a US think-tank said on Monday.The Washington-based Centre for American Progress noted that under pressure from the White House and Indian government lobbyists, “congressional conferees dropped a Senate provision that would have barred the United States from supporting changes to NSG rules”.
NSG or the Nuclear Suppliers Group represents 45 nations that have signed the NPT and therefore are allowed to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
But the CAP report, released on Monday, noted that the legislation adopted by the US Congress on Saturday “would also allow international nuclear trade with Israel and Pakistan” that have developed their nuclear programmes outside the NPT, like India.
“That would mean the unravelling of the Non-proliferation Treaty altogether,” the report warned.
CAP also felt that the Indo-US nuclear deal would allow India to make more bombs and would lessen global restraints on other countries wanting to acquire nuclear weapons.
“Almost immediately, foreign nuclear fuel supplies to India will free up the country’s existing limited domestic capacity of uranium for both energy and weapons to be singularly devoted to arms production in the future,” warned the CAP report.
“That could mean that India could increase its current production capacity from six to 10 additional nuclear bombs a year to several dozen per year.” India already has enough material for some 60 to 100 nuclear bombs.
Authors of the report-- Daryl G. Kimball is executive director of the Arms Control Association and Joseph Cirincione, Senior Vice-President for National Security at the Centre for American Progress– warned that the deal would trigger a nuclear arms race in South Asia.
“Pakistan is sure to match India’s capability while China may reconsider its fissile production halt for weapons,” they said.
They felt that in concluding a nuclear deal with India, the Bush administration has allowed business and political interests to trump the national security interests of the United States. “The results? More Indian bombs; less global restraint.”“The US-India nuclear trade legislation would grant India the benefits of being a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty without requiring it to meet all of the responsibilities expected of responsible states.”
India has been outside the international nuclear mainstream since it improperly used Canadian and US peaceful nuclear assistance to conduct its 1974 nuclear bomb test, refused to sign the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and conducted additional nuclear tests in 1998. India has been cut off from most US civilian nuclear assistance since 1978 and most international assistance since 1992 because of these violations.
The CAP report warned that the legislation passed by the 109th Congress on Saturday “blows a hole in the fabric of US non-proliferation law”.
It felt that India’s willingness to open some nuclear reactors for international inspection in return for the deal was not enough as the agreement allows it to keep its extensive and secret nuclear weapons and materials production complex off-limits. “These partial inspections are all symbols, no substance,” the report added.
CAP complained that by adopting the nuclear bill, Congress spurned provisions that would have required commitments from India to restrain its production of nuclear weapons and nuclear bomb material. The legislation also overlooks the US obligation to uphold UN Security Council Resolution 1172 of June 1998, which calls upon India and Pakistan to join the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, stop nuclear weapons deployments, and halt the production of nuclear bomb material.“From conception to passage, the new law threatens our global non-proliferation obligations,” the report said. “Republicans and Democrats bear equal blame for this disaster.”
Leaders of both parties rejected amendments that would have conditioned civil nuclear trade with India on its joining with the United States and other nuclear-weapon states in capping the production of more nuclear bomb material. Nor does the bill require the US president to certify that US civil nuclear assistance is not, in any way, aiding India’s bomb programme.
