india-US 123: out in the cold, the russians
Almost for the first time I read an article on the India-US 123 Agreement
that not only makes sense, but also has the logic that
can only come from being honest.
Being an ex-IFS Officer, an Ambassador and a Joint Secretary,
I have more faith in his statement than many politicians and armchair pundits
who are hellbent to sell away our country’s sovereign rights to become another of
America’s poodles.
Indo-US Nuclear Deal: A Curtain Raiser -III
Mr. Yogesh Tiwari is a retired IFS officer and has served as the Ambassador to Austria and Singapore besides handling various other important assignments in the MEA GoI.
Late Rajiv Gandhi had the vision to foresee the problem of scarcity of energy in India and under his leadership, the Ministry of External Affairs (I was the Joint Secretary dealing with the USSR) was able to achieve a strategic breakthrough in persuading the then USSR to put up 10 x 1000 Mw Nuclear Power Plants. Nuclear fuel was to be supplied by the USSR.
As we did not wish to have the spent fuel with its con-commitant safeguards and disposal problems, we persuaded the USSR to take it back.
The Soviet export of plant/machinery was on standard soft terms (48% – grant element), but it increased to 52% on my persuasion. Soviet Union also agreed to provide nuclear fuel on concessional terms.There was no unilateral, bilateral or multilateral condition imposed by the USSR, except that these power plants would be under project specific safeguards and not full-scale safeguards of IAEA, which was entirely un-objectionable.
We have the agreement and the format for unlimited development of nuclear energy in cooperation with Russia. Why go for a deal, specially with the US, that it would come under severe, unreasonable, stringent and totally gratuitous conditions.
We declared a unilateral voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosions, meaning clearly that if our security & circumstances so demanded in future, we could & would undertake Nuclear Tests.
Being bound by the putative agreement with US, we would not be able to do so without violating the entire agreement. Our agreements with Nuclear Supplier Group et al and US would be revoked, even though the IAEA safeguards would continue.
We are not going to get any special treatment from IAEA for safeguards. IAEA has only two kinds of safeguards – one for non-nuclear NPT signatory states and the other for 5 NWS (Nuclear Weapon States – USA, USSR, China, UK, and France).
In fact, when we are a declared Nuclear Weapons Power, for us to sign safeguards akin to those applicable to non-nuclear weapon NPT countries would be politically humiliating and strategically disastrous, canceling in one swoop all our cumulative and hard fought gains over the past forty years in attacking the unjust and discriminatory NPT and our carving out a highly respectable place in the global nuclear community.
It reminded of this news article I had read a while back.
And things logically fall into place.
Russia, India Cement Nuclear Ties
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
The Associated Press, Thursday, January 25, 2007; 10:24 PMNEW DELHI: Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Thursday to build four nuclear reactors for India and give it broader access to Moscow’s energy riches, as the old Cold War allies sought to reinvigorate their friendship.
Putin, who will be the guest of honor at India’s Republic Day celebrations on Friday during his two-day visit, met Thursday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and officials from the two nations signed several deals on energy, scientific and space cooperation. “Although there has been a sea change in the international situation during the last decade, Russia remains indispensable to India’s foreign policy interests,” Singh said afterward.
“We hope the high level of political trust should be converted into economic opportunity. We hope to harmonize the political and economic aspects of our relationship,” Putin said. Singh said energy cooperation was at the center of the new “strategic partnership.“
Russia has been eager to reassert its traditional role as the chief supplier of nuclear technology and know-how to India in the wake of a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal between New Delhi and Washington last year that opened the door to U.S. companies’ prospective expansion in India’s nuclear market.
Russia is building two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors in the southern town of Kudankulam, and a memorandum of understanding signed Thursday said that the four new reactors would be built, but did not outline a timetable or other specifics.
My comments and opinions have been criticised
by some who claim politics based on ideology is out dated.
But I cannot shrug aside feelings of loyalty, fairness or trust, even in politics.
Where would we stand in the world’s stage if we have lost our loyalty and honesty.
We had signed an 123 Agreement with the US before, for Tarapur.
Arun Shourie tells us how the US treated us.
The US signed that Agreement with us in 1963.
It was to be effective for 30 years, till 1993.That Agreement provided that the US would give fuel for Tarapur as needed by India.
It provided that the US would have the first right to spent fuel in excess of India’s needs for peaceful nuclear energy. And even for this part, just the first right. If it did not take back the fuel, we would have the right to reprocess it. There were no conditions.In testimony to the US Congress, US officials have themselves acknowledged that the US is not to this day sure that India violated any term of the 1963 Agreement.
Yet, the US terminated all fuel supplies in 1974, saying that India had violated domestic US laws. Pressed about the laws, the US maintained that India had violated the intent of US domestic laws! For decades, it has consistently refused to either take back spent fuel or let us reprocess it.All this happened, even when there was no Hyde Act — no India-specific law — to govern that Agreement.
Last three decades, when we had China and Pakistan howling at our doors,
America was on Pakistan’s side, even let China help Pakistan to get their N-fuel.
So why are we selling the sovereign soul of our country?
To buy American uranium to create nuclear energy capacity
of 6 per cent of the total energy demand of India by the year 2035.
Those of us who believe, american uranium will solve all our energy problems,
dream your lovely dreams, to wake up to realise it has turned into an eternal nightmare.
Russia, India Cement Nuclear Ties – continued
In the past, Russia has stood by India, supplying it with reactors and fuel even as it was denied Western technology for its refusal to sign the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Putin also promised to give India a broader access to Russia’s vast hydrocarbon wealth.
On the sidelines of Putin’s visit, India’s state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp. signed a deal with Russia’ state-controlled OAO Rosneft to jointly bid for exploration and refining projects, ONCG said in a statement.
“We will strongly support that, as well as cooperation with other Russian oil companies,” Putin told a Russian-Indian business forum.
India is already a shareholder via the state-run ONGC Videsh Ltd. in the Sakhalin-1 oilfields, which have started production, and Putin said it could be offered a share in the prospective Sakhalin-3 project.
Energy cooperation is vital for India, which has struggled to supply adequate power to its burgeoning economy that has been growing at more than 8 percent in recent years. Despite India’s rapid recent development, power cuts remain frequent across the country.
“This has been a significant visit both for its symbolism and for its substantive content,” said C. Uday Bhaskar of the Institute for Defense and Strategic Analyses, a New Delhi-based think tank. “A resurgent Russia and a more confident India are reiterating their decades-old relationship.”
Our new “American masters” will like that.
Not.
America
Russia
India
Hyde’s Act
123 Agreement
