[NukeNet] Statement re Delay of US-India Nuclear Agreement

[Citizens' Nuclear Information Center]

The statement below was issued today by the US-India Working Group of 
the ABOLITION 2000 network.

The statement emphasizes the fact that the US-India nuclear deal is a 
threat to both nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. I am sure 
people on this list are well aware of that fact, but there is a 
tendency to view the deal only from the angle of non-proliferation.

Of course the statement doesn't address the implications of the 
political impasse in India for the much heralded nuclear renaissance, 
but the outlook for the nuclear industry is looking somewhat less rosy.

Philip White
Coordinator, Abolition 2000 US-India Working Group

---------------------------

Statement re Delay of US-India Nuclear Agreement
"breathing space to reflect on the damage it would do"

The US-India Working Group of the ABOLITION 2000 network(1) welcomes 
reports that implementation of the US-India Nuclear Agreement remains 
on hold for the time being. However, the governments of India and the 
US have not abandoned the agreement altogether and attempts to revive 
the process are continuing. Nevertheless, it appears that the world has 
gained at least some breathing space to reflect on the damage that the 
agreement would do to the twin causes of disarmament and 
non-proliferation.

The US-India nuclear agreement exempts India from US non-proliferation 
laws that have banned the sale of nuclear fuel and technology to India 
for about three decades. These laws were created because India had used 
nuclear technology provided for peaceful purposes to make nuclear 
weapons. In addition, the Nuclear Suppliers Group of countries (NSG) 
was created in response to India's 1974 nuclear weapon test. For the 
agreement to proceed, the NSG must reach a consensus to grant India a 
special exemption from its nuclear trade rules. That India conducted 5 
nuclear test explosions in 1998, after most of the NSG members had 
signed and ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, does not help 
its case.

The 123 agreement undermines the basic bargain of the nuclear 
non-proliferation regime - you cannot benefit from nuclear trade if you 
make nuclear weapons. Pakistan and Israel, who are also outside the 
NPT, have already asked for similar privileges to those offered to 
India. North Korea may echo these demands. Some countries may ask why 
they should stay in the NPT if they can get the same benefits by being 
outside it.

If in future, under changed political circumstances, the agreement is 
reactivated, members of the NSG, as well as member states of the 
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), should resist attempts to make an 
exemption for India from the rules governing nuclear trade.

If India and other states outside the NPT are to be integrated into the 
international mainstream, NSG and NPT states must require that they do 
so on terms that promote genuine nuclear disarmament. Non-nuclear 
weapons states must insist that states which possess nuclear weapons, 
regardless of whether or not they are members of the NPT, take concrete 
and irreversible steps towards real nuclear disarmament. These steps 
should include bringing into force the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, 
negotiating a Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty and signing a universal, 
non-discriminatory and enforceable nuclear weapons convention.

Despite developing nuclear weapons outside the NPT, India has always 
been a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament. It would be perfectly 
consistent with India's past pronouncements for it now to take the 
initiative in such a program. More so as Rajiv Gandhi, India's then 
Prime Minister, himself strongly pleaded for disarmament in June 1988 
before the UNGA.

Whatever the motives might have been of the groups within India that 
stymied early implementation of the US-India Nuclear Agreement, a great 
setback for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation has been avoided 
for the time being. All states and all citizens working for these 
causes should seize this opportunity. If we fail to do so, in the not 
too distant future we may find ourselves back where we were 2 weeks 
ago.

Philip White, US-India Deal Working Group Coordinator
Steven Staples, Global Secretariat to Abolition 2000
23 October 2007

(1) ABOLITION 2000 is a global network of over 2000 organizations in 
more than 90 countries working for a global treaty to eliminate nuclear 
weapons. The US-India Deal Working Group was established at ABOLITION 
2000's Annual General Meeting, May 2007, Vienna. The website for the 
working group is as follows:
http://cnic.jp/english/topics/plutonium/proliferation/usindia.html