Experts Call for Push on U.S.-Indian Nuclear Deal

South Asia experts have called on top U.S. and Indian officials to broker a solution to the impasse over a bilateral civilian nuclear trade deal during talks planned in Washington this week, the Press Trust of India reported (see GSN, March 21).

India’s communist parties oppose the agreement, which would make U.S. nuclear fuel and technology available to New Delhi, saying it poses a threat to their nation’s sovereignty.  They have threatened to withdraw their support of the country’s ruling government and force early elections if Indian leaders move to implement the deal.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was expected to address the deal during meetings yesterday and today with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other high-level U.S. officials.

“The civilian nuclear deal should now be the most important thing they discuss so that they are able to assure themselves that progress can be made because the deal right now hangs in the balance,” said Harold Gould, an India expert at the University of Virginia. 

“Somebody has to break through with an initiative that moves this nuclear deal back on to a positive track.  The nuclear deal has to get off the dime now,” he said, adding that the U.S. electoral season has placed consideration here of the agreement in “limbo.”

“In a way they have got to address the fact that there is a certain amount of stalemate on both sides on this.  Obviously the [ruling] Congress party in India is in a very, very critical stage because of the opposition of the communists.  How are they going to work around this,” Gould said.  “The result is that there isn’t active addressing of this particular issue which really in the long run is very, very critical.”

Bush administration officials are likely to seek Mukherjee’s opinion on the deal’s status, said Walter Andersen, a former high-level U.S. State Department official who now leads the South Asia Program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

New Delhi should provide reassurance that it remains committed to implementing the deal, said Askok Mago, chairman of the Dallas-based U.S.-India Forum.

“We feel very strongly that Mukherjee’s visit will result [in] the final stage to conclude a long journey which has seen a few bumps on the way,” he said (Press Trust of India/The Hindu, March 21).

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