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US-Indian Nuclear Deal Faces Obstacles    [
US Ready to Sell Advanced Arms to India: Pentagon    [

    Dissenting on Atomic Deal With India
    By Steven R. Weisman
    The New York Times

    Friday 03 March 2006

    Washington - In concluding its nuclear deal with India, the Bush administration faces significant opposition in Congress and tough questions from its allies on whether the arrangement could set a precedent encouraging the spread of nuclear weapons to Iran and other potential foes of the United States.

    But Bush administration officials expressed confidence on Thursday that they could overcome the skepticism of the critics, in part because support is nearly universal in the West and among Republicans and Democrats in Washington for building India's strength as a bastion of democracy and a counterweight to China in Asia.

    The Defense Department issued an unusually explicit statement hailing the deal for opening a path for more American-Indian military cooperation.

    "Where only a few years ago, no one would have talked about the prospects for a major U.S.-India defense deal, today the prospects are promising, whether in the realm of combat aircraft, helicopters, maritime patrol aircraft or naval vessels," the Defense Department statement said.

    Diplomats familiar with the negotiations with India said Britain, France, Germany and probably Russia would eventually line up to support the agreement, in part because it would clear the way for them to sell nuclear fuel, reactors and equipment to India. They would not agree to be identified, because several countries have yet to signal what stance they would take.

    More skepticism is expected from China, several diplomats said, because India has made little secret of its desire for a nuclear weapons arsenal to counter Beijing and its longtime ally, Pakistan.

    Critics of the deal in Congress and abroad are certain to focus on what they maintain is a double standard embraced by the Bush administration: in effect, allowing India to have nuclear weapons and still get international assistance but insisting that Iran, North Korea and other "rogue states" be given no such waiver.

    But administration officials insisted there was no double standard.

    "The comparison between India and Iran is just ludicrous," R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, said Thursday in a telephone interview. "India is a highly democratic, peaceful, stable state that has not proliferated nuclear weapons. Iran is an autocratic state mistrusted by nearly all countries and that has violated its international commitments."

    What has emerged on Capitol Hill is an alliance of conservative Republicans, who are concerned that the deal will encourage Iranian intransigence, and liberal Democrats, who charge that the Bush administration has effectively scrapped the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

    This bipartisan skepticism is unusual, producing for example cooperation between a liberal Democrat, Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, and a conservative Republican, Representative Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

    Senator Richard G. Lugar, the Indiana Republican who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has raised more than 80 questions about the deal that he says need to be answered before it can be approved.

    "People are worried about the precedent of establishing a full-fledged cooperation with India while we're wagging our finger at North Korea and Iran," said a Republican aide on Capitol Hill, who requested anonymity because he was describing matters still being weighed in private discussions. "But it's also true that India is facing an energy crisis, and we can't ignore that problem either."

    The negotiated accord announced Thursday by President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi is aimed at removing the ban effectively imposed by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty on the sale of fuel and civilian nuclear technology to India, in return for India's agreement to put its civilian reactors under international inspections.

    India, the negotiators agreed, will be able not only to retain its nuclear arms program but to keep a third of its reactors under military control, outside international inspection, including two so-called fast-breeder reactors that could produce fuel for weapons.

    The accord would also allow India to build future breeder reactors and keep them outside international inspections. A fast-breeder reactor takes spent nuclear fuel and processes it for reuse as fuel or weapons. American officials negotiating with India over the last several months failed to get India to put its current and future breeder reactors under civilian control. But the accord would allow India to buy equipment and materials for only those new reactors that are to be used for civilian purposes.

    India's refusal to put all its breeder reactors under civilian control was seen in New Delhi as a matter of pride and sovereignty. Mr. Singh, who reiterated the need for India's autonomy in nuclear matters, faces pressure from his governing coalition, which includes the Communist Party and other anti-American elements.

    India's nuclear program has previously mixed civilian and military purposes. But the accord announced in New Delhi would place 14 of India's 22 nuclear reactors under civilian inspection regimes by 2014. The phase-in and the possibility that breeder reactors may never come under such a regime have drawn fire from critics.

    "This deal not only lets India amass as many nuclear weapons as it wants, it looks like we made no effort to try to curtail them," said George Perkovich, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "This is Santa Claus negotiating. The goal seems to have been to give away as much as possible."

 

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    US-Indian Nuclear Deal Faces Obstacles
    The Associated Press

    Thursday 02 March 2006

    Washington - U.S. lawmakers cautioned Thursday that an agreement to share U.S. civilian nuclear technology with India still faces obstacles in Congress, where some worry it could undermine efforts to stop nuclear proliferation.

    President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed to the plan's details. Lawmakers from both political parties said they would wait for the Bush administration to argue its case before deciding whether to vote for nuclear shipments to India.

    "The administration must show Congress it will make us more secure by bringing India into closer compliance with international nonproliferation norms," said Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

    What lawmakers think is crucial, because they must either change or approve an exception to the U.S. law that bans civilian nuclear cooperation with countries that have not submitted to full nuclear inspections.

    "While I believe that the Congress will support this agreement, it is important to take into consideration the nonproliferation concerns raised by some of my colleagues," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. "I look forward to receiving detailed briefings."

    India has refused to sign the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and some fear the Bush plan could allow rogue countries outside the treaty to build nuclear weapons programs with imported civilian nuclear technology.

    Bush gave a nod Thursday to the hard work ahead, saying he looked forward to working with lawmakers to "change decades of law that will enable us to move forward in this important initiative."

    Though both chambers of Congress are controlled by the GOP, lawmakers have shown a growing tendency to break from Bush's leadership as his popularity declines and congressional elections approach in November.

    Most recently, they have revolted over a decision by the administration to allow a Dubai-based company to operate parts of six major U.S. ports.

    Bush and Singh signed the civilian nuclear agreement in July, but it hinged partly on India's separation of its military and civilian nuclear programs.

    Details of the agreement remained murky, but a U.S. official said India agreed to classify 14 of its reactors as civilian, which would open them to international inspection; eight were deemed military reactors, which exempts them from inspection.

    One issue likely to worry lawmakers is the unclear status of several other Indian reactors and whether they would be open to inspection.

    Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on Asia, said Congress faces a vital question: whether the proposed agreement strengthens the treaty "or whether it symbolizes an irreparable breach."

    Critics of the plan worry how the world's other nuclear powers will view a unilateral decision by the United States to loosen restrictions on the distribution of nuclear supplies.

    India's nuclear rival Pakistan, where scientist A.Q. Khan ran a network to smuggle nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea, told Bush in January that it also wants U.S. civilian nuclear technology.

    Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., an outspoken critic of the plan, called it a "historic nuclear failure" that endangers U.S. national security.

    "With one simple move, the president has blown a hole in the nuclear rules that the entire world has been playing by," Markey said.

    Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York, another Democrat, said that while he supported the nuclear plan, Bush "has, thus far, done a horrendous job of convincing Congress that the agreement is a good idea."

    He urged Bush to "get to work and make the case to Congress, or else the nuclear deal will blow up in his face."

 

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    US Ready to Sell Advanced Arms to India: Pentagon
    Reuters

    Thursday 02 March 2006

    Washington - The United States said on the heels of a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation pact with India on Thursday that it was prepared to sell advanced warplanes and other high-tech arms to the south Asia nation.

    "Where only a few years ago, no one would have talked about the prospects for a major U.S.-India defense deal, today the prospects are promising, whether in the realm of combat aircraft, helicopters, maritime patrol aircraft or naval vessels," the U.S. Defense Department said as President George W. Bush paid a three-day visit to India.

    "The next step is to turn the talk of prospective sales into reality. The United States is committed to working with India to do this," the department added in a statement released to coincide with the president's visit.

    The Pentagon release did not mention any specific deals except to note that Washington was prepared to offer Lockheed Martin F-16 and Boeing F/A F-18 jet fighters to India.

    In New Delhi earlier in the day, India and the United States sealed a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation pact, the centerpiece of Bush's first visit to the world's largest democracy.