India nuclear deal will not spark arms race: US

Washington, Mar 07: The Bush administration, launching a campaign to sell its civilian nuclear accord with India to the US Congress, insisted the deal advances US interests and would not spawn an Asian arms race.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, the top US negotiator, also expressed confidence that India will focus most of its future nuclear growth on civilian energy development, not weapons-building, and said critics who suggested otherwise paint an unrealistic ''doomsday scenario.'' ''We are having trouble understanding the argument that somehow this deal makes it more likely that India is going to engage in an arms build up. That's not at all the sense that we have from the Indian government,'' he told the conservative Heritage Foundation yesterday.

In New Delhi last week, President George W Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced an unprecedented deal that would end a decades-old ban on U.S. civilian nuclear technology sales to India and open the door for other countries to make similar deals.

US critics have accused Bush of selling out weapons non-proliferation goals in favor of the accord, which India considers crucial to a new relationship with Washington.

But Burns said ''this doomsday scenario that's been put together by some critics, I think, does not meet the reality of the current situation of the Indian government and its people and their future economic and energy needs.'' As for South Asian neighbors nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, ''we don't foresee an arms race between these two countries,'' whose relations have improved in recent years, Burns said.

Although politically weakened by domestic and overseas crises, Bush has the upper hand as he attempts to persuade the US Congress and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to approve the agreement, in large part because there is broad support for stronger US-India ties.

Burns met lawmakers on Capitol Hill to explain Bush's position and leading senators and congressmen have been invited to discuss the issue at the White House today.

Other public appearances by top officials are planned and the US Chamber of Commerce has launched a multi-million lobbying effort for the agreement.

Defending the deal, Burns noted India has agreed to subject 14 of 22 existing civilian nuclear reactors to international inspections, as well as all future civilian reactors.

As in the case of the five major nuclear powers; the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- India will not open its weapons-related nuclear plants to inspections.

Burns argued that because India plans its nuclear expansion in civilian energy more than than in military area, the number of facilities subject to monitoring would increase over time.

But Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association, a critic of the deal, noted that Indian officials themselves have said they would not accept safeguards on the experimental fast-breeder reactor program and said this raised questions about Burns' assurances.

''It's a meaningless concession that the U.S. can't hold the Indians to. This is a figleaf for having caved into India's position on breeder reactors'' and Congress will have to correct it, Kimball said.

Reuters

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