China Supports U.S.-Indian Nuclear Deal

China publicly backed a U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal yesterday, indicating that it could seek to take advantage of relaxed nonproliferation rules to cooperate with New Delhi in the nuclear field (see GSN, Nov. 22).

The U.S.-Indian deal has been backed by the U.S. Congress, which exempted India from U.S. nonproliferation laws.  International guidelines on nuclear export controls must also be eased before nations can begin selling atomic technology and material to India, which is not party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (see GSN, Dec. 13).

“We consider the cooperation between countries to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes will be beneficial to maintain the principles and effectiveness of international nuclear nonproliferation,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang in response to a question on the U.S.-Indian deal.

The statement appeared to clarify China’s official position on the deal, the Press Trust of India reported.  Recent statements had appeared to be contradictory.

In a late-November summit in India, China and India agreed to increase their nuclear cooperation.

“Considering that for both India and China, expansion of civilian nuclear energy program[s] is an essential and important component of their national energy plans to ensure energy security, the two sides agree to promote cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, consistent with their respective international commitments,” said an official joint statement.

On the other hand, recent commentaries in the official Xinhua News Agency suggested China opposed the U.S.-Indian agreement and the recent congressional bill to ease U.S. export laws.

“The legislation is also in contradiction to the obligations of Washington as a lead signatory of the NPT,” said one Xinhua commentary.  “The treaty obligates its signatories not to provide assistance to the nuclear programs of states that did not sign the NPT” (Press Trust of India, Dec. 13).

Indian nuclear scientists yesterday supported the pending trade deal with the United States.  Their views countered those expressed earlier this year by a group of former nuclear officials (see GSN, Aug. 15).

“You want to be really energy independent in the long term, there’s no doubt about that,” Srikumar Banerjee, director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, said yesterday.  “If any additional inputs come from other countries, that’s also welcome.”

“Partnership with [the] United States is very good,” said top Indian scientist Chaitanyamoy Ganguly, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency’s nuclear fuel cycle and materials section.

“Not only that, we should have global partnership not only with the U.S. but with other advanced countries in the field of nuclear power reactors,” Ganguly added.  “For example, [the] Russian Federation is another country, France is another country.  Why not Japan and South Korea?”

“But it’s a win-win situation,” he continued.  “India also has a lot of expertise and lots of expert manpower, and if you make the whole thing global, everyone will be benefited” (Asian News International/Hindustan Times, Dec. 13).

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