India's US nuclear deal in last
straight By Siddharth
Srivastava
NEW DELHI - A final version of
the India-United States nuclear deal, called the
123 Agreement, has been sealed, though the
contents of the 30-page document have not been
revealed, indicating that there could still be
some political space to be covered, even if the
technical details seem to have been sorted out.
Top Indian officials and a host of
high-level US administration personnel have been
engaged over the past week to thrash out
the
disagreements that have stalled the pact so far.
The agreement will allow US companies to sell
nuclear fuel and technology to India.
A
joint communique was issued in Washington that
said the discussions were "constructive and
positive", and both Nicholas Burns, the under
secretary of state for political affairs, and
Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon "are
pleased with the substantial progress made on the
outstanding issues".
"Both the United
States and India look forward to the completion of
these remaining steps and to the conclusion of
this historic Initiative," the communique said,
without specifying whether the "remaining steps"
are just the political clearance or whether there
is still technical ground to be covered.
In what has been a deliberate exercise,
senior unnamed officials have been quoted in
various media forums as saying that the text has
been "basically finalized", but the document
cannot be divulged.
Deputy State
Department spokesman Tom Casey said: "It [final
agreement] will have a full review, I'm sure, by
appropriate committees and members of Congress, as
well as by you guys [Indian] and other interested
members of the public."
The three-day
talks extended to an extra day on Thursday and
then into Friday.
The two sides will now
refer the issue to their governments for final
review. Despite the bipartisan support in the US
Congress for the nuclear deal, there are many who
still oppose it.
India and US have been
trying to iron out the nuclear pact with a flurry
of officials traveling to and fro in the recent
past. There are reports of give-and-take to
accommodate each other's apprehensions and laws.
In what could still turn out to be the
precursor to the grand finale, over the past week
top people, such as Vice President Dick Cheney,
considered as one main power center, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary
Robert Gates popped on various occasions to meet
Indian officials.
Others involved included
national security advisers Stephen Hadley and M K
Narayanan. One key person was India's atomic
energy chairman, Anil Kakodkar, who must have
closely studied the scientific details. His
presence is crucial to win the nod from the
scientific community in India, which would have
been averse to just bureaucrats handling the
draft.
It is now expected that Rice will
visit New Delhi in August or September for the
political event associated with the agreement,
though it would be premature to assume anything
until all details are out in the open, discussed
and sealed.
In India, the left parties,
used to enjoying the trappings of power without
any responsibility, will closely study the fine
print and are sure to find faults, given their
dislike for anything connected with the US.
The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has
called for the setting up of a joint parliamentary
committee to oversee the "agreement" and report
back to Parliament, which could turn out to be
another endless and protracted cycle of
discussions and finger-pointing.
The
contentious issues relate to New Delhi's right to
conduct another nuclear arms test without the US
breaking civilian relations and India's right to
reprocess spent fuel and be assured of permanent
fuel supplies.
It would be politically
suicide if New Delhi cedes any of the above
conditions to be legally binding, while it would
be difficult for Washington to steer the agreement
through Congress for a final up-and-down vote,
given existing laws that prohibit nuclear testing.
Apart from the cabinet ratifying the
agreement, the next steps for India involve
negotiating a safeguards agreement with the UN's
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and an
endorsement of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers
Group, which sets the rules for global nuclear
commerce.
Along with the civilian
reactors, the IAEA will have to be provided access
to the separate facility for reprocessed fuel to
satisfy the international community that it is not
used for military purposes.
Washington has
been pushing for the final blueprint as the Bush
administration is keen to highlight the
achievement before it runs out of its term.
The Manmohan Singh-led Congress government
faces general elections in the summer of 2009 and
would also like to show off the nuclear deal as a
part solution to India's power woes, without
compromising its military program.
Even as
officials met in Washington, Manmohan said in New
Delhi that the negotiations were in the "last
leg", but he did not predict by when the agreement
would be firmed up.
It is interesting to
note that the discussions in Washington were led
by a team of officials considered to be Manmohan's
men, with the political strata of the Foreign
Ministry kept out.
The nuclear deal was
signed in March 2006 and seeks to allow India
access to international civilian nuclear power
know-how despite not being a signatory to the
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It is widely
seen as the standout achievement of President
George W Bush and Manmohan. Bush visited India in
March last year.
A powerful lobby in the
US wants the nuclear deal sealed, since it opens
the way for nuclear power business and massive
arms deals. New Delhi, too, has been defending the
deal, with the safeguards in place.
Several high-powered US business
delegations with representatives of top nuclear
firms have been visiting India to study the
prospects of nuclear business worth an estimated
US$100 billion, of which US firms expect at least
$30 billion.
India is expected to purchase
weapons worth up to $10 billion each year over the
next decade as part of a massive modernization
exercise, including the single-largest fighter jet
deal for $10 billion, for which US companies
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are bidding.
Due to the new strategic levels in the
US-Indian relationship, US firms are considered
frontrunners to win the deal, given the
expectations of Washington. New Delhi recently
signed a slew of military purchases from the US.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
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2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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