India/America Nuclear Deal Still Appears on Track

Posted by johnhouk on Aug 21, 2008
 John R. Houk
© August 21, 2008

India and America had signed a deal to share nuclear technology. I viewed this as a fantastic possibility for India and America to begin to connect as military partners.

With China beginning to pour the dividends of its exploding economy into a growing technologically better military, developing close contact with India is an imperative to American National Interests of the future.

Also India has been traditionally big on anti-Islamic terrorism. That places India as a natural for military cooperation in the present.

The “NOW” problem is that India also has been traditionally stand-offish with America. One reason has been India’s close cooperation with the former communist Soviet Union and America’s tendency to support India’s greatest mortal enemy in Pakistan.

The international problem is that India (as also Pakistan) independently developed a nuclear weapon program against the will of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Add to that India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

To further complicate this nuclear sharing pact between America and India is that Iran is a non-approved nuclear nation which everyone knows (even with Iranian denial) is developing WMD for belligerent acts in the Middle Eastern region, America and Israel.

Iran is whining how can India receive international validation and Iran receives international condemnation.

Here is the reason idiotic Iran: India is the largest nation in the world with stable democratic institutions and infrastructure while Iran is the largest exporter of Islamofascist terrorist activity coupled with blatant continuous threatening against Israel and America.

With all these mitigations working against the final approval of an India/America nuclear sharing deal it still seems to be remarkably moving forward.

To date the IAEA, Indian Parliament and American Congress, appear to be tentatively on the approval track.

There are still obstacles all the way around. It is a gamble but I hope those obstacles are overcome.

JRH 8/21/08
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Nuclear exporters mull lifting India trade ban

By VERONIKA OLEKSYN
Associated Press Writer
Aug 21 01:24 PM US/Eastern
BREITBART.COM

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A group of nations that export nuclear material on Thursday debated whether to give India access to nuclear fuel and technology—a decision crucial to finalizing a landmark U.S.-India deal lifting a ban on such sales.

The deal would reverse more than three decades of U.S. policy that has barred the sale of nuclear fuel and technology to India, a country that has not signed international nonproliferation accords and has tested nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency approved the deal earlier this month.

But India still needs approval from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, or NSG, whose members were meeting in Vienna to discuss whether to grant India a waiver. Observers said the group, which operates by consensus, was unlikely to relax its rules during the highly secretive two-day meeting, and some suggested it could take up to three meetings before a decision is made.

Some countries are enticed by the prospect of doing more business with India, and appear to back a U.S. argument that the deal would bring India into the nonproliferation mainstream. Washington considers the deal with New Delhi a foreign policy priority.

But others are concerned that exporting nuclear fuel and technology to a country that has not made a legally binding disarmament pledge could set a dangerous precedent and weaken efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and materials. Leading up to the meeting, some also argued against making any hasty decision to fit into the U.S. congressional calendar.

Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon declined to comment after briefing NSG members on Thursday. Other participants described it as useful, and said the atmosphere at the morning session was cordial.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the United States was "very hopeful" that the NSG will approve a waiver for India.

"Time is running short," Wood said, referring to a U.S. congressional calendar that has only a few weeks of work left before lawmakers are scheduled to break for the rest of the year to campaign for November elections.

The exemption would give India access to technology and fuel normally reserved for countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and allow their nuclear facilities to be fully inspected.

Iran is sure to object to the deal, arguing that India—which developed nuclear arms in secret—is now being rewarded with access to atomic technology. Iran is under U.N. sanctions for refusing to freeze its nuclear activities, though it insists the program is peaceful despite international concerns it is a cover for developing weapons.

"Approval would weaken nonproliferation efforts and negotiations with Iran," Ulrike Lunacek, a member of Austria's Greens, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. She also urged Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik to block the waiver for India.

The NSG was created in response to India's nuclear test explosion 34 years ago, which marked the country's shift from maintaining a foreign-supplied civilian nuclear program to developing atomic arms.
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 India/America Nuclear Deal Still Appears on Track
John R. Houk
© August 21, 2008
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Nuclear exporters mull lifting India trade ban
Associated Press writers George Jahn in New York, Thomas Brunner in Bern, Switzerland, and Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm, Sweden, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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