Testing is new wrinkle in US-India nuclear deal

WASHINGTON, Apr 25 : The United States will stick to its insistence that India adhere to a moratorium on testing atomic weapons as part of a deal that would give India access to US and foreign nuclear technology for the first time in three decades, senior officials said.

The testing issue has emerged as the latest wrinkle in the deal, which includes supplying nuclear fuel and reactors to meet India's civilian energy needs.

US Ambassador to India David Mulford expressed confidence the testing issue would be successfully resolved, but acknowledged that Congress may not vote on the deal until after the November election.

The agreement ''is being worked on and there will have to be some sort of wording arrangement (on testing), which has not been agreed. It's a matter to be discussed'' with India, he told the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative thinktank.

A senior US official close to the negotiations who spoke anonymously told Reuters: ''In working out this bilateral agreement, we're going to have to arrive at language -- and I think we can work this out with the Indians.'' He insisted the administration is ''not rolling back on that commitment ... We're going to maintain our insistence on the moratorium.'' The nuclear agreement, underpinning a dramatic improvement in ties between the United States and India has raised concerns that it weakens efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons.

India has not signed the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and has produced nuclear weapons outside international standards.

In an agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation last July 18, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a unilateral declaration that India would maintain a voluntary moratorium on nuclear weapons testing.

The two sides are negotiating a more detailed peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement required by US law, which includes reference to the testing moratorium.

Many Indians interpreted the reference as a US move to force India to agree to a permanent ban on nuclear testing. India has refused to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, arguing it divides the world into nuclear haves and have-nots.

The United States has also rejected the CTBT but, together with Britain, France, Russia and China, has honored a voluntary moratorium on testing.

US officials and experts say the Indians misinterpreted the provision relating to testing in the proposed agreement.

Rather than banning India from testing, they say the provision asserts the US legal right to halt cooperation under the accord if India tests. The United States is bound by law not to assist India's weapons program and that will not change under any new agreement.

''What the Indians are objecting to is standard language'' for nuclear cooperation agreements with the United States, a congressional aide told Reuters.

''It makes clear that India recognises the United States has the right to stop future cooperation and reserves the right to require the return of equipment and materiel pursuant to that right,'' said the aide, who was not authorized to speak for the record.

He said the testing issue ''could be a significant problem because it looks like the Indians aren't serious about commitments they made on July 18.'' US officials have long sought to speed approval of the US-India deal by the US Congress and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Reuters

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