07-13-2009, 08:26 AM
<b>A new challenge on the nuclear front</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Siddharth Varadarajan
<i>The G8 decision on enrichment and reprocessing-related trade is a wake-up call for the Indian establishment.
The government needs to realise that the problem will not go away just because one pretends it does not exist</i>
India should have pressed its case when the Bush administration announced its intention of seeking NPT conditionality for ENR sale
<b>
It is one thing to try and spin oneâs way out of domestic criticism but if the Manmohan Singh government really believes the recent G8 ban on sensitive nuclear technology sales is no big deal then the situation is much more alarming than I first thought.</b>
Two weeks before Secretary of State Hillary Clintonâs scheduled arrival date in New Delhi, the State Department spokesman said that the U.S. hoped India would be in a position to identify the physical sites where American companies will get to locate their multi-billion dollar nuclear reactors. <b>The final reprocessing arrangements and procedures have yet to be negotiated but the U.S. is keen to mark its territory. </b>Yet, the <b>Indian government baulks from publicly expressing its concern about the manner in which Washington is going about unilaterally seeking to alter the terms of the July 2005 Indo-U.S. agreement under which those reactors will be sold to us in the first place</b>.
<b>Not only that, senior officials who should know better have sought to downplay the significance of last weekâs G8 statement on nonproliferation.</b> When reporters sought a government reaction on the interim ban the eight countries announced on enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) items and technology sales to India, Pakistan and Israel, what they got were comforting but spurious arguments.
Prior to September 2008, the Nuclear Suppliers Group â the 45-nation cartel of nuclear exporters â had a blanket ban on all nuclear sales to these three countries, currently the only ones still outside the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. But on September 4, 2008, the NSG agreed to the U.S. proposal to exempt India from this ban. This U.S. proposal was part of the full civil nuclear energy cooperation commitments the White House made in exchange for getting India to agree to separate its military and civilian nuclear programmes and place the latter under international safeguards.
........
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Siddharth Varadarajan
<i>The G8 decision on enrichment and reprocessing-related trade is a wake-up call for the Indian establishment.
The government needs to realise that the problem will not go away just because one pretends it does not exist</i>
India should have pressed its case when the Bush administration announced its intention of seeking NPT conditionality for ENR sale
<b>
It is one thing to try and spin oneâs way out of domestic criticism but if the Manmohan Singh government really believes the recent G8 ban on sensitive nuclear technology sales is no big deal then the situation is much more alarming than I first thought.</b>
Two weeks before Secretary of State Hillary Clintonâs scheduled arrival date in New Delhi, the State Department spokesman said that the U.S. hoped India would be in a position to identify the physical sites where American companies will get to locate their multi-billion dollar nuclear reactors. <b>The final reprocessing arrangements and procedures have yet to be negotiated but the U.S. is keen to mark its territory. </b>Yet, the <b>Indian government baulks from publicly expressing its concern about the manner in which Washington is going about unilaterally seeking to alter the terms of the July 2005 Indo-U.S. agreement under which those reactors will be sold to us in the first place</b>.
<b>Not only that, senior officials who should know better have sought to downplay the significance of last weekâs G8 statement on nonproliferation.</b> When reporters sought a government reaction on the interim ban the eight countries announced on enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) items and technology sales to India, Pakistan and Israel, what they got were comforting but spurious arguments.
Prior to September 2008, the Nuclear Suppliers Group â the 45-nation cartel of nuclear exporters â had a blanket ban on all nuclear sales to these three countries, currently the only ones still outside the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. But on September 4, 2008, the NSG agreed to the U.S. proposal to exempt India from this ban. This U.S. proposal was part of the full civil nuclear energy cooperation commitments the White House made in exchange for getting India to agree to separate its military and civilian nuclear programmes and place the latter under international safeguards.
........
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->