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U.S. Ambassador Faults India Nuclear Plan
India has yet to meet a key requirement for finalizing the proposed nuclear technology sharing agreement with the United States, the U.S. ambassador to India said in an interview published yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 27). David Mulford said that India offered an inadequate proposal on separating its civil and military atomic installations, Agence France-Presse reported. “If the plan that’s put forward doesn’t appear to put ... the great majority of nuclear reactors into the civilian program, then I think members of the Congress are going to say, ‘Wait a minute, we thought that India wanted to develop a civil nuclear industry. So if that’s the case, why are they putting so little on the civil side ... they must have some different agenda,’” Mulford told the Press Trust of India. “We have to deliver a credible plan and that standard has not been met yet,” he said. Under the agreement, civilian nuclear sites in India would be subject to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Jan. 30). “In order to move on to a new phase in which civil nuclear power would be available to India, India has to make some difficult choices,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Reuters. “It’s very important to understand that in order to satisfy the concerns of the American Congress and our laws and the concerns of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, that there will have to be some steps taken to make sure that the proliferation risks are not enhanced by this deal,” she said. (Reuters, Jan. 27). Meanwhile, New Delhi has said it plans to abstain from a vote on Iran’s nuclear program at an emergency International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting on Thursday due to U.S. pressure, the Saudi Press Agency reported today. Mulford said last week that India’s refusal to oppose Tehran at the meeting could jeopardize the U.S.-Indian nuclear technology deal. “We cannot vote with the U.S. after his comments. We’re planning to abstain,” said one senior official (Saudi Press Agency/Hindustan Times, Jan. 30). “We will not come under pressure. … Our prime concern is to protect and safeguard India’s enlightened national interest,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Jan. 29).
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