Bush Certifies U.S.-Indian Nuclear Trade Deal

U.S. President George W. Bush issued two certifications this week intended to enable the implementation of a recently signed nuclear trade deal with India (see GSN, Oct. 14).

In issuing their final approval of the deal earlier this month, U.S. lawmakers required the president to certify that the trade agreement would not violate the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and that the United States would try to persuade other nations not to sell uranium enrichment or plutonium separation technology to India.

In a short memorandum Monday, Bush complied:

“1. Entry into force and implementation of the United States-India Agreement for Cooperation on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy pursuant to its terms is consistent with the obligation of the United States under the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons not in any way to assist, encourage, or induce India to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices; and

“2. It is the policy of the United States to work with members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, individually and collectively, to agree to further restrict the transfers of equipment and technology related to the enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.”

Some backers of the traditional nuclear nonproliferation regime have argued that the trade deal does in fact violate U.S. obligations to the treaty by enabling New Delhi to purchase uranium from foreign suppliers, thus allowing the nation’s limited domestic supplies to be used for weapon purposes.

The certification “will be another George Bush lie.  They can’t certify that,” Arms Control Association leader Daryl Kimball said earlier this month.  “We are indirectly assisting India’s production of bomb material.”

The second certification was intended to appease U.S. congressional concerns about the deal potentially providing technology that could be used to produce nuclear-weapon materials.  While Bush made the certification, the text of deal does not prohibit such transfers (Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire, Oct. 22).

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