Indo-US pact gives 'India-specific' safeguards

The proposed Indo-US nuclear agreement provides undefined "India-specific" safeguards and fails to explicitly state whether the US nuclear trade would terminate if India conducts nuclear test, a senior arms control specialist has said.

"The pact promises India, assurances of nuclear fuel supply and advance consent to carry out sensitive nuclear activities that are unprecedented and inconsistent with legislation approved by Congress last year," Daryl Kimbal of the Arms Control Agency has said.

The sum of these and other US concessions could give India, that has violated past agreements on peaceful nuclear cooperation by testing a nuclear weapon, terms of nuclear trade more favourable than those for states that have assumed all the obligations and responsibilities of the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), which it (India) has never signed," he said in

The Arms Control Today

.

Asking the Congress and the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to prevent further damage, he said, "Much is at stake. In the coming months, Congress and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group can prevent further damage by using their authority to close the loopholes in the deeply flawed US-Indian agreement."

While many NSG member states support India's legitimate nuclear energy goals, they are also deeply uncomfortable with the agreement and for good reason, he said, adding partial safeguards in India are hardly worth their estimated $10 million annual cost.