I'm glad I've got some heavy "back-up" (
here,
here and
here) for what I've been saying all along - this nuclear "deal" with India is not only worthless, it's also extremely dangerous.
The whole point of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), which the United States signed, is to keep nuclear weapons from proliferating. Since last summer, the Bush administration has been lobbying Congress and working with India to achieve a private, separate treaty to exchange high-level nuclear technology AND information in exchange for... India's signing the NPT? Agreeing to IAEA inspectors at its nuclear plants? Nope and nope.
I'll quote you the Indian Prime Minister himself,
Manmohan "The Man" Singh:
Therefore our proposed Separation Plan entails identifying in phases, a number of our thermal nuclear reactors as civilian facilities to be placed under IAEA safeguards, amounting to roughly 65% of the total installed thermal nuclear power capacity, by the end of the separation plan. A list of some other DAE facilities may be added to the list of facilities within the civilian domain. The Separation Plan will create a clearly defined civilian domain, where IAEA safeguards apply.
That's right. The much-heralded agreement reached between Bush and Singh is a separation plan whereby 65% of the nuclear facilities, the civilian energy-providing ones, will come under IAEA inspection. The other 35%, mostly military nuclear reactors, will remain completely unsupervised by the IAEA and international community. What a deal!
Remember this follows John Bolton's statement this week that both Pakistan AND India acquired their nuclear weapons "legitimately", despite the fact it is well-documented that AQ Khan, the "godfather" of Pakistani's nuclear program, stole most of the information from a uranium enrichment plant in the Netherlands where he used to work.
Neither India nor Pakistan has ever been a member of the NPT therefore all members (including the USA) should not be selling them advanced equipment to improve/build nuclear reactors or enrichment facilities nor giving them high-level expertise on the matter. And there have indeed been sanctions against doing so since 1998, when India proved it had nuclear weapons by conducting a series of underground tests.
Removing these sanctions is not only a violation of the NPT (one of those pesky "international" treaties), it is also a violation of the 1994 Nuclear Proliferation Proliferation Act, an American law. This mandates not only cutting off any nuclear equipment/expertise to the country but imposing wide-ranging sanctions that rule out almost everything but humanitarian aid. Of course there is a "waiver" if the President "determines and certifies in writing to the Congress" that the continued imposition of sanctions would have a serious adverse effect on vital United States interests.
And the Bush administration did lift sanctions against both India and Pakistan back in late September 2001, including restrictions on dual-use technologies. Can you guess why? Because it was in the "national security interests of the United States". Pakistan was later designated a Major Non-NATO U.S. Ally (MNNA), making it eligible for high-level weapons sales as well as training for its military by American soldiers (all of which came to pass).
This new "deal" with India however needs to be approved by the Congress. So it's not yet something set in stone.
Think of it this way - if the U.S. can reach a private, unilateral deal with India on nuclear equipment/expertise exchanges, what's to stop China from doing the same with Myanmar (Burma)? Or China with North Korea? Or Russia with Venezuela or Brazil?
Happy Nuclear Weapons Proliferation Day!
This is cross-posted from Flogging the Simian
Peace