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US looks nuclear India in the
eye
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - The United States
will soon play host to an honored guest from
India, a person who has been one of the architects
of India's nuclear program.
In a clear indication that much
water has passed under the bridge since India turned
into a nuclear-weapons state in May 1998,
Dr R Chidambaram, principal scientific adviser
to the government of India, will visi Washington
for talks with the US nuclear establishment. The
post that Chidambaram holds is equivalent to that
of a minister, and he is the nodal person to
coordinate all nuclear efforts by India, whether
for civilian purposes or otherwise.
Chidambaram's clearance follows US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's landmark
visit to India earlier this year, during which
Rice discussed US willingness to end the more than
three-decades-long nuclear energy blockade of
India. Rice's reiteration of US intentions is a
reflection of the way the President George W Bush
regime is looking to construct a new nuclear
global order.
Chidambaram was chairman of
the Indian Atomic Energy Commission when on May 11
and 13, 1998, a series of nuclear tests were
conducted at Pokhran, in the northern desert state
of Rajasthan, under the aegis of then-prime
minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Pakistan soon
followed at Chagai Hills, in Balochistan province,
with its nuclear arsenal built and peddled across
the world by nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer
Khan.
Chidambaram essayed a stellar
role in the execution of the tests, including
on-site supervision. Weeks after, he was scheduled
to attend a meeting organized by the American
Crystallographic Association in his capacity as
vice chairman of the International Union of
Crystallographers. But an angry US administration
under president Bill Clinton denied him a visa,
despite support for Chidambaram from the US
scientific community.
Several other scientists
were subsequently denied visas, and researchers
and engineers working on joint collaborations,
such as the light combat aircraft project, were
asked to return home. In September last year, the
US imposed sanctions on two Indian scientists
following their alleged nuclear cooperation with
Iran, to which India had strongly protested.
Successive US administrations have refused
to approve sales of nuclear material to Indian
since it did not adhere to the global nuclear
regime governed by the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) that came into existence in 1968.
India, as well as Pakistan, has not signed the NPT
as it feels it discriminates between the nuclear
haves and have-nots, with no obligation on the
adherents of the NPT to rein in their nuclear
programs.
In a top-level exchange that
is also a reflection of changing
paradigms, Chidambaram is scheduled to visit the
US on May 19 to discuss issues related to
proposed cooperation between the two sides on
nuclear energy, relevant technologies and the
jettisoning of roadblocks. Ironically, Chidambaram
had been invited to witness a US nuclear test in
Nevada in the late 1960s and played a leading role
in the design and execution of the peaceful
nuclear experiment by India in 1974.
Recently, top officials of the Indian Space
Research Organization (ISRO) - another body that
has faced the brunt of US sanctions due to
development of dual-use technologies - have also
been visiting the US for discussions with
scientists. India hopes there is the possibility
of an American payload delivered by Indian launch
vehicles in the near future.
Indeed, the US has been
trying to redefine its approach toward nuclear
cooperation under the Bush administration while
keeping the pressure on countries such as India to
sign the NPT. The new paradigm, according to
experts, defines clusters of nations on the basis
of a "trust factor", a definition that India fits
into easily, unlike Pakistan, a fact emphasized by
Rice during her visit to the sub-continent.
The "trust factor" takes into
consideration a country's record in peddling
nuclear technology as well as indigenous paradigms
that make the existence of such technology
safe/dangerous in a particular country. This
includes matters such as nuclear weapons falling
in the hands of terrorist groups.
India
has been trying to impress on the world
community that despite being a non-signatory of
the NPT, it remains a "responsible" nuclear
nation. The Indian government introduced a bill in
parliament this week that intends to codify New
Delhi's policy to prevent the spread of its
nuclear weapon and missile technology to
non-nuclear states, a charge its nuclear neighbor
Pakistan faces.
"We have adopted the most
responsible policy on sensitive and dual-use
nuclear and missile-related technologies," Foreign
Minister Natwar Singh said on Thursday as the
Lower House of the Indian parliament passed the
measure, the Weapons of Mass Destruction and Their
Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful
Activities) Bill, by a voice vote. "We are
committed to ensure that these do not fall into
the wrong hands, especially the terrorists and
non-state actors," the minister said. The bill
will finally become law once it is passed by the
upper house, which will be a formality.
Like Chidambaram's visit, the nuclear bill
comes almost seven years to the day that India
dared international norms and tested a nuclear
weapon. India's nuclear control bill also
coincides with an international conference on the
future of the NPT.
Defense Minister Pranab
Mukherjee said in parliament this week: "The
provisions of the act apply to export, transfer,
re-transfer, transit and transshipment of
material, equipment or technology relating to
weapons of mass destruction or their means of
delivery."
India feels it should be
perceived as a country that can be "trusted",
despite staying out of the NPT. In February this
year the head of the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, led by its commissioner, Jeffrey
Merrifield, visited the Indian Atomic Energy
Regulatory Board and went back quite satisfied
with India's nuclear safety record.
Following in the footsteps of the
US, Russia also has expressed its readiness to
further expand cooperation with India in civilian
nuclear energy. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during
his recent meeting with Russian President
Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of VE-Day festivities
in Moscow, impressed India's nonproliferation
record along with the proposed nuclear bill. Russia
is helping India construct a nuclear power plant
in Tamil Nadu under a deal signed in 1985
by then-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and
erstwhile Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. After
the break up of the USSR in 1991, Russia joined
the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which bans it from
selling civilian nuclear technology to
non-signatories of the NPT, including India.
It may be recalled that the existing
US-led global nuclear regime is struggling to deal
with the fact that North Korea has declared that
it possesses nuclear weapons while Iran is intent
on moving in the same direction. India and
Pakistan tested their nuclear devices in 1998,
thereby completely flouting the existing nuclear
order under the NPT.
Several reports suggest there is
increasing cooperation between "rouge" states, with Iran-North
Korea forming a cartel of support for each other
along with the possible complicity of states
such as Pakistan, which peddled nuclear technology
across the world courtesy of powerful people such as Khan. Iran
and Iraq, incidentally, signed the NPT, making
them eligible to procure nuclear technology for
peaceful purposes from other signatories that
possessed weapons such as the US, the UK and
France.
The US circle of suspicion
includes China, which is reported to have helped
out with Pakistan's missile and nuclear program,
with the US unwilling to hear any talk of arms
supply to the Asian giant by the European Union.
The US considers Pakistan to be a much closer
militarily with China, which is never a comforting
thought. The momentum to enhance military
relations (apart from nuclear cooperation) with
India also follows reports of North Korean
missiles that have been deployed by Pakistan
reportedly in exchange for nuclear secrets.
Last year in January, Bush pledged that
the US would be willing to help India with its
nuclear energy and space technology in return for
India's promise to use the assistance for peaceful
purposes and to help block the spread of dangerous
weapons. The US also wanted India to implement
reciprocal steps to impose strict controls over
the spread of weapons and technology, in return
for expertise and supplies India. The nuclear bill
addresses this concern.
Siddharth
Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd.
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