Burns Presses India to Move on Nuclear Deal

A senior U.S. official this week urged Indian leaders to press forward with implementing a bilateral nuclear trade that has faced serious political opposition in New Delhi (see GSN, Oct. 22).

Indian political parties from both the left and the right have complained that the deal would give Washington excessive influence over Indian policies, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has delayed pushing the pact forward in an effort to keep his coalition government together.

The agreement would enable India to purchase U.S. nuclear materials and technology in exchange for placing the nation’s civilian nuclear sector under international supervision.  For the deal to take effect, India needs to negotiate a nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (see GSN, Oct. 10) and nuclear exporting nations must agree to exempt New Delhi from rules that ban key nuclear sales to countries that are not party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (see GSN, Sept. 24).

U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, speaking Tuesday at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, pressed Singh to pursue the deal nevertheless.

“We hope very much that the Indian government will be able to go forward.  It’s going to have to find a way forward and make some tough decisions domestically,” he said.  “We don’t want to interfere in those decisions, but we are certainly saying this is a time for reflection, and we hope eventually a time for action to push it forward.”

Burns emphasized that U.S. political conditions could also affect the deal because additional congressional approval is required for its implementation once the safeguards agreement is completed and international trade rules are altered.

“We don’t have an unlimited amount of time, I’m sorry to say.  We in our country, as you know, will be entering an election year.  And if you’re thinking about significant pieces of legislation to put onto Capitol Hill, it’s never a good idea to do that in the spring or summer or autumn of an election year.  So we’d like to get this agreement to the United States Congress by the turn of the year,” he said (Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire, Oct. 25).

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