Nuke deal may trigger arms race

2008-08-20 21:50

Washington - A nuclear energy deal between the United States and India could fuel an arms race with Pakistan unless it is amended to ensure New Delhi is banned from producing new weapons-grade material and from conducting nuclear test explosions, two US lawmakers said on Wednesday.

The two lawmakers called on the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to insist on amending the agreement when it meets to consider the deal in Vienna on Thursday.

Objections by any nation in the group - which controls the global flow of civilian atomic exports - would scuttle the pact.

'Precarious rivalry'

The nuclear energy pact "threatens to rapidly accelerate New Delhi's arms race with Pakistan - a rivalry made all the more precarious by the resignation on Tuesday of the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf", Democrats Edward Markey and Ellen Tauscher wrote in a commentary published in the New York Times.

"This deal was foolish when Pakistan was relatively stable; with Mr Musharraf gone, an arms race on the subcontinent would likely be more difficult to control."

The suppliers group "can say yes to nuclear trade with India if two simple conditions are met", wrote the two members of the House of Representatives.

"First, India must sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a step already taken by 178 other countries and every member state of the Nuclear Suppliers Group."

"Second, India must agree to halt production of nuclear material for weapons."

Such a ban would not require India to give up the atomic weapons it has or prevent it from building more weapons with nuclear material previously produced, according to the lawmakers.

'Nuclear commerce must not be for weapons'

By shutting down the manufacture of new plutonium and highly enriched uranium, India "would prove to the international community that opening up nuclear commerce would not assist, either directly or indirectly, its nuclear weapons programme".

President George W Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed on a framework for the nuclear deal in 2005, under which the United States will provide energy-starved India civilian nuclear fuel and technology.

India still needs a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and ratification by the US Congress before the deal can go through.

The United States and other developed states suspended nuclear trade with India after New Delhi fired its first nuclear weapons test in 1974, and the new deal is part of a strategic partnership between the world's two biggest democracies.

- AFP