Negotiators from India and the USA today attempted to iron out critical differences over the civilian nuclear agreement amid concern that the much-hyped deal is in serious trouble. Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon met Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, the US point person on the deal, in Washington where administration officials were growing increasingly frustrated with Indian demands over nuclear cooperation.
There was no official word on progress in the talks at the time of going to press, however, a breakthrough is considered very unlikely.
S. Jaishankar, India’s high commissioner to Singapore who has been actively involved with the negotiations, joined Menon in the discussions. Menon, who met Under Secretary of State for global affairs and democracy Paula Dobriansky on Monday, was also scheduled to meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack was confident that: “We will get this deal done. I think the meetings coming up over the next couple of weeks will give us a good indication of how quickly a deal can get done.”
He added the USA was interested in “what sort of ideas the Indian government comes to the table with.” But given the slow pace of progress, Burns has suggested elevating the discussion to a political level and would visit New Delhi in the coming weeks.
The 123 Agreement being debated states the US will cease nuclear cooperation with India if India conducts a nuclear test, and that India will not be allowed to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. India, which has refused to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and is under no legal obligation not to test, has opposed a testing ban. Stratfor, a global intelligence group, suggests in an analysis that: “The issue could be
resolved, however, by inserting language similar to that included in the withdrawal clauses of several other disarmament treaties such as the [nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty].” Such a clause allows the party in question to withdraw from the agreement when “extraordinary events ... have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country.”On the other sticking point - reprocessing - Anupam Srivastava at the University of Georgia says India is seeking “consent right” from the U.S. to reprocess spent fuel that comes from the U.S. and by extension, the same rights from other Nuclear Suppliers Group members who will supply fuel to India. “In principle, the U.S. government is not opposed to granting the consent right, but there are a couple of inter-related issues on which the two sides have yet to finalise their positions-and until then 123 negotiations cannot be completed,” he
said. Critics of the deal say President George W. Bush’s administration is not in a position to agree to India’s demands because it would contradict U.S. law. Congress must OK the 123 Agreement, but Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association doesn’t think it is likely to approve of more changes to the law.
Negotiators in Washington and New Delhi hope to work out their differences ahead of a meeting between Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in June on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Germany.
Stratfor sounded a cautious note: “We are not prepared to declare the deal dead just yet, but the pressure is on.”
