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US-India Nuclear Deal Frowned Upon in Washington
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Despite vocal opposition, observers believe Bush could still sell the deal to Congress. (Reuters).
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By
Emad Mekay, IOL Correspondent
WASHINGTON,
March 7, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) - The US-India nuclear energy deal
agreed on during a visit by US president George Bush to New Delhi last
week has been criticized by some experts in Washington worried about the
message it sends to the world and the spread of atomic weapons.
"It's
now going to be tough to argue that Iran and North Korea should be
denied nuclear technology while India, which has failed to even join the
Non-Proliferation Treaty, is given the same technology on a silver
platter," according to Christopher Flavin, president of Worldwatch,
a Washington-based global affairs research institute.
President
Bush met with Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh Thursday, March 2,
and agreed to share nuclear energy technology and provide the country
with nuclear fuel in return for what many view as "cosmetic
monitoring" of the south Asian country's military nuclear program.
The
deal, which capped months of negotiations, commits Washington to seek
approval from the US Congress and countries of the Nuclear Suppliers
Group to lift restrictions on sharing civilian nuclear technology with
India.
The
United States and other major nuclear powers have all pledged under
nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) "not in any way to
assist" the acquisition of nuclear arms by non-nuclear-weapon
states.
Nuclear
experts here in Washington are in agreement that India is a
non-nuclear-weapon state by the treaty's definition.
"In
the rush to meet an artificial summit deadline, the White House sold out
core American non-proliferation values and positions," said Daryl
G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, one US
group skeptical of the agreement.
But
while India had pledged to open India's largely closed nuclear
establishment to international oversight in return for the deal, critics
say that the agreement Bush approved allows India to in fact keep major
existing, and future, facilities of its nuclear sector engulfed in
secrecy and devoted to manufacturing nuclear weapons.
The
Asian giant is also designating its fast breeder reactors, which can
produce large quantities of the nuclear bomb material, plutonium, as
military facilities that will be outside the International Atomic Energy
Agency's (IAEA) mandate.
Undermining
Position
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The civil-military separation plan announced is clearly not "credible" from a nonproliferation standpoint, analysts believe.
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On
the other hand, the deal undermines the US moral position against the
Iranian nuclear program and takes the notorious US double standards
towards the Arab and Islamic world to new heights.
According
to experts close to the deal, India will only subject 14 of its 20-some
nuclear power reactors to international supervision by the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"The
so-called civil-military separation plan announced is clearly not
"credible," from a nonproliferation standpoint, as the Bush
administration had promised it would be," Kimball said.
"By
opening up the spigot for foreign nuclear fuel supplies to India, this
deal would also free up India's limited domestic reserve of uranium for
both energy and weapons to be singularly devoted to arms production in
the future," he added.
This
US generosity has its motives, but it clearly contradicts the country's
near hysterical opposition to Iran's nuclear program, although Tehran
says it needs the program for civilian purposes.
Yet
the right-wing Bush administration, which has a tendency to be cozy with
other right-wing governments and administrations, has countered that the
deal is important because India is a rising and influential global
player.
As
such, India could counter-balance US rivals in Asia like China. George
Perkovich, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
based in Washington, DC, argues that the nuclear deal is based on
administration's "desire to balance Chinese military power in Asia
and the Indian government's obsession with nuclear energy."
War
on Terror
Another
reason for warming up to India on the nuclear front is that Washington
wants New Delhi's support in its self-styled war on terror, an expansive
term that now includes a euphuism for preempting rising powers in the
Muslim world, especially after the 9/11 attack on US landmarks.
During
the visit to India, Bush talked about the need to share intelligence
with India in order to defeat terrorists.
"One
way we work together on terrorism is to make sure intelligence services
share information," Bush said. Singh concurred, "I was
particularly pleased that we agreed on the need to root out terrorism,
of which India has been a major victim."
"We
must fight terrorism wherever it exists, because terrorism anywhere
threatens democracy everywhere."
"Obviously,
the US right and the Hindutva right like the idea of a joint war on
Islam, but it even predates 9/11," said Neil Tangri, the
Asia and Africa Organizer for the Center for Economic Justice.
Many
of the right-wing strategists in the United States often keep an eye on
Israeli interests in the Middle East while crafting US policies; this
policy-making includes an energy
component.
They
hope by giving India, an energy thirsty country that seeks to fuel its
surging economy with nuclear energy, the right to nuclear technology,
that they will be able to eat away at any future influence energy-rich
Arab countries may have.
Bush
has pledged to cut his country's reliance on Arab oil by 75 percent over
the coming years.
But
energy experts say the dent in the need for Arab oil may be too small.
India
will in fact gain little from the deal on the side of energy security.
According to Worldwatch, nuclear power provides only three percent of
the electricity produced today in India.
The
research organization also finds that even if the 30 new nuclear plants
the Indian government hopes to build are actually completed over the
next two decades, nuclear power would still provide only five percent of
the country's electricity and two percent of its total energy.
Positive
Side
But
there are more reasons for the deal. The agreement was cheered on by
business groups and corporations, many of them drooling at the size of
the Indian market which boasts the world's second largest population of
1.1 billion people.
US
corporations say India boasts the world's largest middle class,
approaching the size of the entire US population. These well-educated
consumers have an increasing buying power and present many opportunities
for US business. The country is already one of the United States'
fastest growing export markets.
US
and Indian businesses have long seen the value of working together and
the president's determination to cement the relationship with this
critical partner should be commended, according to Harold McGraw III of
the Businesses Roundtable, a leading US lobbying business group.
One
heftily lucrative area for US businesses is defense trade. During the
visit Bush pledged to help meet India's defense needs and to provide the
important technologies and capabilities that India seeks.
Given
the powerful US businesses and the hawkish anti-Islamic mood in the US
congress, initial hopes by critics of the deal that the US law makers
will stop the deal may soon be dashed as the Bush administration and its
friends in right-wing circles market the deal as a necessary step for
the country's security and the war on terror.
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