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U.S., India Discuss Global Nuclear Energy Plan
Indian officials said yesterday that the United States might invite New Delhi to join the new Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Feb. 8). The goal of the plan is to expand the peaceful use of nuclear fuel around the world. U.S. companies would sell nuclear materials to foreign nations as long as those countries returned the spent fuel to the United States for reprocessing. The U.S. plan calls for research into “more proliferation resistant” reprocessing that would produce a mixture of plutonium and neptunium, making it harder to separate the plutonium for use in weapons. Talk of the partnership came up yesterday during a meeting between U.S. Energy Undersecretary David Garman, and Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. The two were meeting in New Delhi to discuss the planned U.S.-Indian technology sharing agreement (Rajesh Mahapatra, Associated Press/The Hindu, Feb. 9). Meanwhile, eight former Indian diplomats have asked New Delhi to clarify to the public how the nuclear sharing agreement would change Indian policy, the Press Trust of India reported. “Given the sharp divergence of opinion on this landmark agreement and the strong passion that it has generated in the country, the very least that the Indian government could do, before finalizing the terms of implementing this agreement, is to present a full picture to the Indian public of where we are heading,” the diplomats said in a joint statement. They added that while Indian security must be considered, “the present ambiguity and paucity of information is not acceptable in a democratic country.” “In such a situation, bits and pieces of news and speculative comments appearing in the media, many of them from American sources, who always seem to be better briefed and know more, help only to create more confusion and engender more suspicion that India is somehow being maneuvered into surrendering its autonomy in decision-making in such vital matters,” according to the diplomats. The diplomats added “the fear shared by many is that the price India will be asked to pay to ensure U.S. congressional ratification will be too high, not only in the specific area of New Delhi's future nuclear program, but even on broader issues of nuclear proliferation, and perhaps also on other foreign policy aspects.” “An added anxiety is the not so very encouraging record of the U.S. in adhering to agreements, modifications and withdrawals from bilateral/multilateral accords driven by shifts and reversals in U.S. doctrine and policy are not unknown,” according to the diplomats (Press Trust of India, Feb. 8).
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