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Civil nuclear deal: US and India to discuss ‘impractical’ conditions

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: American and Indian officials are expected to discuss next week two new conditions imposed by the US in their nuclear deal that Indian experts feel are “impossible to accept”.

These conditions require India to return all material and equipment that it will acquire under the deal if either side terminates it, or if the US perceives a violation of the letter and spirit of the agreement for cooperation in civil nuclear energy.

The perceived violation will also entitle the United States to demand the return of all material and equipment and all “nuclear material and weapon-usable byproducts” produced through their use. Indian nuclear experts say that the two conditions are not only “impossible to accept” but “impractical and will set a dangerous precedent”.

The new conditions were conveyed to India as early as the beginning of April, but New Delhi made no mention of objections to them in a set of documents Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran handed over to Nicholas Burns, the US under secretary of state for political affairs, in London 10 days ago.

A US team led by negotiator Richard Stratford is to arrive in New Delhi next week for further negotiations. Stratford is the director for nuclear energy, safety and security in the State Department’s Bureau of International Security and Non-Proliferation. The External Affairs Ministry is mum over the stand that India will take in the negotiations with Stratford on the conditions that the Americans have been introducing one by one, citing their domestic difficulties in getting the agreement through the US Congress. Reports from Washington say Stratford will be carrying a message to the Indian negotiators that the US wants the deal done before December to coincide with adoption of its sponsored Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament.

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