New Delhi
29 March 2006
Although mum's the word on Raisina Hill to the scepticism that the
United States may have trapped India into becoming a party to the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty, a former US President Jimmy Carter may have reinforced the suspicion in
suggesting India should be made to sign the CTBT.
"[The deal has] aroused negative responses from NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)
signatories, including China, Russia and even our nuclear allies, whose competitive
alternative is to upgrade their own capabilities without regard to arms control
agreements," he writes in an article titled "A Dangerous Deal with India" in The
Washington Post on Wednesday.
"[T]here are no detectable efforts being made to seek confirmed reductions of almost
30,000 nuclear weapons worldwide, of which the United States possesses about 12,000,
Russia 16,000, China 400, France 350, Israel 200, Britain 185, India and Pakistan 40
each," he observes.
"India should also join other nuclear powers in signing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test
Ban Treaty," he says. [T]he US companies might win contracts for two of eight nuclear
reactors India wants to import by 2012 but this is a minuscule benefit compared with the
potential costs," he adds.
Mr Carter's remarks come at a time when Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran has airdashed
to Washington to address some of the reservations of the US lawmakers who have
questioned the Bush Administration's proposal to amend the US Atomic Energy Act of
1954 with an India-specific exemption.
Another Democrat, US Representative Edward Markey, who is the co-chairman of the
bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, says President George Bush is promoting
global commercial deals at the expense of national security.
Meanwhile, New Delhi has adopted a cavalier attitude towards the criticism of the
proposed India-US civilian nuclear energy cooperation by the certain governments in
Asia and Europe alike. The German chancellor and the foreign ministers of Japan and
China have articulated their reservations.
Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs told this newspaper that the onus of bringing
the sceptics on Capitol Hill and the key world-capitals around to a view compatible with
that of New Delhi and Washington is the responsibility of the US, as spelt out in the
understanding reached on 18 July 2005.
The sources suggested that US Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns and
US Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Bob Joseph would be
doing just that when they provide a classified briefing to the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee on Wednesday.
Next, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will testify on April 5 before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee and April 6 before the House International Relations
Committee.
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