To stir NSG pot, key US n-deal critic ‘reveals tough line’ already known

The 26-page letter was written to Berman’s predecessor, the late Tom Lantos, on January 16.

First reported by The Washington Post, the non-proliferation lobby projected the conversation as showing “duplicity” between what the US itself plans to follow and the “milder” exemption it’s seeking from NSG. The Left and the BJP seized on it to argue that India had bartered its sovereignty to the US.

A close look at the “secret revelations” only underlines what is already in the public domain: the Indo-US understanding on nuclear testing and the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technology.

US envoy to India David Mulford said the letter had “no new conditions” and “no data...which has not already been shared in an open and transparent way with members of Congress and with the Government of India.”

A meeting of senior Congress Ministers was held this evening including Pranab Mukherjee, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Atomic Energy Commission chief Anil Kakodkar.

One question on which there is tremendous pressure in the NSG is to terminate all cooperation in case India were to test a nuclear device. Some NSG countries have argued that US should not resist this provision as it intends to follow the same course in the bilateral agreement with India.

To this, the State Department has very clearly stated that US has the “right to cease all nuclear cooperation immediately” in case India were to carry out a nuclear test but adds that it has the “right to terminate the agreement on one year’s notice” only after which the commitments under Article 5.6 (relating to fuel supply assurances)

would no longer apply.

In other words, during the one-year consultation period, the US will have to follow its commitments on ensuring uninterrupted fuel supply to Indian reactors.

... contd.