U.S. Senate to Consider Shelving Nuclear Rules to Trade with India
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Washington, DC As the Senate returns to Washington this week, it is expected that it will schedule a vote to change US laws in order to allow nuclear trade with India, despite its development of nuclear weapons outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime.
India also conducted missile tests most recently on October 31 and July 9, 2006, testing its Agni-3 missile which has a range of more than 1800 miles. Leonor Tomero of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation warned India has chosen to conduct not one but two series of missile tests while waiting for the U.S. Congress to approve changes to long-standing laws that have prohibited the transfer of nuclear material and technology to countries that do not allow inspections on all its nuclear facilities. She added Rewarding India with nuclear fuel and technology, despite its having remained outside the non-proliferation norm for decades and in the midst of India conducting missile tests, including testing its long-range missile, should raise some eyebrows at the very least. Critics of the deal have expressed concern that fuel shipments to India under the proposed US-India nuclear deal allow India to dedicate its limited domestic reserves of uranium for use in its military program and thereby enable India to expand its nuclear weapon production from about 6-12 weapons per year to 40-50 weapons annually. Lt. General Robert Gard, Jr. (USA, Ret.), Senior Military Fellow at the Center, stated We should not delude ourselves that the US-India deal brings India under the non-proliferation umbrella to the contrary, India continues to work on its nuclear capable missiles and expand its nuclear weapon program. These missile tests are all the more reason for the US Congress to delay voting to make changes to US laws that would accommodate the proposed nuclear deal until the details of implementation are fully negotiated. Under the proposed legislation, Congress would first vote on changing US laws that bar nuclear trade with a handful of countries, including India, that do not accept international safeguards on all its reactors. Congress would then cast a second up-or-down vote after the United States and India negotiate the implementation agreement, and India negotiates an inspections agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Disagreements over the terms of these agreements have already surfaced and the negotiations are expected to take at least several months. The United States has prohibited nuclear exports to India since 1974 when India first conducted a nuclear explosive test. India also tested nuclear weapons in 1998. |
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