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Rigid stance of US puts N-deal at risk

 
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Aseem
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:46 am    Post subject: Rigid stance of US puts N-deal at risk Reply with quote

not sure whether to put it in Military Aviation & Space or Non-Av, anyways

Times of India wrote:
Rigid stance of US puts N-deal at risk
NEW DELHI: The odds are lengthening against the India-US nuclear deal, and under the existing circumstances its prospects appear bleak. As the two countries battle a stalemate in the negotiations on the ''123'' agreement, it has become clear that the US cannot extend nuclear cooperation to India the way it was promised in the July 18 and March 2 joint statements, and India cannot accept anything less.

A high-level source in the Indian government told TOI, "We cannot accept the deal under these conditions." As foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon embarks on a last-ditch bid to salvage the deal in a week's time, it is being recognised that the US is in no mood to concede India's stance on the three critical issues of reprocessing, testing and fuel guarantees. While the Bush administration has not publicly hardened its stance as yet, the increasingly shrill comments by senior US officials in the US media are being seen as reflecting their insistence that India must come around. What started off as individual laments has become a refrain.

At this end, the government is determined not to make any concession beyond what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid out in Parliament.

There is a hope that a Manmohan-Bush session can resolve the logjam. But here too, there are limits to what the PM can concede, with Congress sources ruling out any concession over and above the bottom-line sketched by the government in Parliament.

Electoral setbacks, which have given a handle to those who held that the deal would alienate the Muslim vote, combined with the busy poll calendar ahead have, in fact, left the government with little wiggle space.

In Washington, the Bush administration, despite its promises to India, does not have the political capital to work around the restrictive provisions of the Hyde Act passed by the Congress, particularly on reprocessing and testing issues, as well as fuel guarantees.


The article says all!!
rgds
VT-ASJ
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stealthpilot
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don’t think the article says all. I’m not too familiar with what’s happening concerning the 123 agreement, but I bet it’s a lot more complicated than the article conveys.
I won’t form an opinion based on a newspaper article from one country, I wonder what the Americans have to say.
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Aseem
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would presume their points would be the same, just from their nationalistic perspective. Managed to find in NY Times
NewYorkTimes wrote:

India Debates Its Right to Nuclear Testing
NEW DELHI, April 20 — A nuclear accord hailed as the centerpiece of India’s deepening friendship with the United States appears to be in jeopardy, as Indian officials argue about whether its limitations on their nuclear activities offend the country’s sense of sovereignty.

The accord, which was announced by President Bush last year and approved by Congress, is now mired in the swamp of history and complicated politics of nonproliferation. In effect, the negotiations have been unable to resolve a central question: should India be treated as a nuclear weapons state, which retains the right to test its weapons and reprocess spent nuclear fuel?

Those two issues in particular are proving trickier to sort out than anyone anticipated. The dispute has come up as the two countries are trying to negotiate an accord known as a “123 agreement.” The Indian side has resisted provisions in that agreement, which could punish India for conducting further nuclear weapons tests, and put restrictions on whether it can reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The “123” refers to a section of the United States Atomic Energy Act.

The United States fears that the reprocessed fuel could be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium for a new generation of nuclear weapons, undermining Mr. Bush’s argument that the unusual deal with India would aid nonproliferation.

The deal is not necessarily doomed. But the sticking points are so politically contentious that they make it extremely difficult for either President Bush or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India to break the impasse easily.

American and Indian negotiators conferred this week on the sidelines of a meeting of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group in South Africa. Washington has made it clear that it has already made plenty of concessions to Indian demands, and administration officials have openly stepped up pressure.

“We are frustrated it has taken this long,” R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, said in a telephone interview from Washington on Thursday. “We would have hoped for faster progress. But we do not doubt their good faith. We are friends. We will get through this.”

Mr. Burns said the Indian foreign secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon, had been invited to Washington for talks early next month, and Mr. Burns planned then to travel to India.

Completion of the deal will determine whether India can buy nuclear fuel and reactors from the United States or anywhere else. Until the 123 agreement is sealed, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a loose organization of countries that sell nuclear equipment and material, will not open the doors to nuclear commerce with India.


rgds
VT-ASJ

p.s. full article in Editorial section.
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stealthpilot
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yea I read the other article Aseem, thanks.
Interesting- however we knew from the start that deep (tough) concessions would have to be made.
I don’t believe India should give up their right to test nuclear weapons, at least not for a few years. 10-20 years down the line fine, stop all tests if all the other nations do as well.
We really need to push nuclear (power) technology though- with help from the Japanese, Russians, Americans anyone. I understand lots of people wont agree that nuclear fuel is clean but the less coal plants we have the better.
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Last edited by stealthpilot on Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:18 am; edited 1 time in total
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HAWK21M
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

India thinking of its own security concerns should not be an issue with those that do towards their own security concerns too.
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MEL
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