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U.S. Eyes Legal Changes for Indian Nuclear Deal
The White House this week could begin offering details of the changes to domestic and international laws it plans to allow a nuclear technology sharing deal with India to move ahead, Reuters reported (see GSN, Oct. 13). Chances of modifying the regulations improved when India supported the potential referral of Iran to the U.N. Security Council. However, some U.S. lawmakers are concerned that the controversial deal encourages the spread of nuclear weapons, Reuters reported. Doubts about whether India would ultimately send Iran to the Security Council also have clouded the deal. Congressional sources and several experts said India, which has growing strategic ties with Iran, has not yet committed to the issue. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns is expected to speak tomorrow in New York on relations between Washington and New Delhi before traveling to India for additional negotiations, Reuters reported. The deal would violate current international guidelines and U.S. law, both of which allow nuclear exports to non-nuclear weapon countries only if all nuclear-related facilities in those countries are subject to international inspection. India does not meet these standards. Congressional sources and experts said they believe the Bush administration will ask the for a special exception for the Indian deal from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the multinational group that sets nuclear export guidelines. However, a European diplomat said that other countries want a broad exception that would allow for additional nuclear deals. Pakistan has asked for a similar deal, a move that the United States opposes, Reuters reported, and experts said China would try to use India’s exception as a justification for enhancing its nuclear cooperation with Pakistan. Most European countries expect “a way will be found to accommodate India,” according to a European diplomat, but no decisions are anticipated during this week’s Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting (Reuters, New York Times, Oct. 16). Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov is in New Delhi to watch Indo-Russian war games and is expected to discuss civilian nuclear cooperation with India, according to the Press Trust of India. When asked if Russia would enter into nuclear cooperation agreements similar to India’s planned deal with the United States, Ivanov said that Russia and the United States are both members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. “However, a) we have an understanding of India's acute energy requirements, b) we know that India has an impeccable nonproliferation record, c) India's domestic regimes and legislations replicate the nonproliferation pacts, although it has not signed [the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty], d) it is the largest democracy,” he said. “All this allows us to trust India in sensitive issues bordering on proliferation of weapons of mass destruction” (Vinay Shukla, Press Trust of India/OutlookIndia.com, Oct. 15).
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