Experts Slam Canadian Nuclear Cooperation With India

Canada’s decision to resume nuclear cooperation with India is a “sad mistake” that undermines nonproliferation efforts, a former Canadian foreign affairs minister told The Globe and Mail Monday (see GSN, Sept. 27).

“Canada is abandoning its 40- to 50-year traditional diplomatic approach in how to deal with the dangers of nuclear weapons,” said Lloyd Axworthy, who was foreign affairs minister in 1998 when Ottawa halted nuclear cooperation with New Delhi.

“What we are witnessing is a major sea change in attitudes towards nuclear proliferation,” Axworthy said.

He said India, which is not a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, is being “rewarded with recognition as a nuclear-weapon state.”

Peggy Mason, a former Canadian ambassador for arms control issues, agreed.

“This decision is a slap in the face to all of the other countries that have toed the line on nonproliferation,” Mason said. Brazil, South Africa and Argentina all once had advanced nuclear programs but signed the treaty, according to the Globe and Mail (Jeff Sallot, Globe and Mail, Sept. 27).

India, meanwhile, pledged yesterday to take “reciprocal” measures, including “safeguards on facilities of a civilian nature,” as countries renew nuclear cooperation with New Delhi, the Press Trust of India reported.

“This would be in keeping with the responsibilities and obligations of an advanced nuclear power with the objective of full civilian nuclear energy cooperation with international partners,” Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar told the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Since some of these steps will also include safeguards on facilities of a civilian nature, selected by India on a voluntary basis, we will, at the appropriate stage, approach the IAEA in this regard,” he said.

“We are happy that we are now feeling the winds of change,” he said, adding that he hoped India would obtain the “same benefits and advantages” other nuclear powers enjoy (Press Trust of India/Hindustan Times, Sept. 28).

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