India sovereign, but no N-test please: US

NEW DELHI: Even as the government asserted that India retained the right to test, the United States has said though India is sovereign, Washington does not encourage any state to test atomic weapons. “A variety of officials from the US have said essentially the same thing. And that is, we are not testing and I don’t think you see advanced nuclear countries around the world testing,” state department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Thursday.

Asked to comment on the debate in India over whether it has the right to test nuclear weapons under the landmark nuclear deal, he said, “India is a sovereign country and I think you're all familiar with the provisions in the 123 Agreement. Certainly, that provides the President options to act in the event there is a test. The whole issue is India is sovereign, but we're not encouraging any state to test at this point,” Mr McCormack said, without asserting — as he did a couple of days ago — that a test by New Delhi would lead to scrapping of the deal.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his statement in Parliament, had asserted that India and the US were equal partners and the 123 Agreement is between “two States possessing advanced nuclear technologies, both parties having the same benefits and advantages”.

Two days after the PM’s statement in Parliament, Mr McCormack had responded saying the 123 Agreement has provisions in it which will terminate the nuclear co-operation should India conduct a nuclear test. “The 123 Agreement has provisions in it that in the event of a nuclear test by India, all nuclear co-operation will be terminated,” he said on Wednesday, in response to the Prime Minister's assertion that there is nothing in the deal that would tie the hands of future governments to test a nuclear weapon.

The government has been playing up the point that there is no mention of a nuclear test in the text of the 123 pact. But the Left and the BJP have been arguing that the deal cannot be viewed in isolation and has to be read with the Hyde Act, which contains a provision that states all co-operation will cease if India tests a nuclear weapon. External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee had countered this by saying India was not bound by the Hyde Act.

Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar, too, maintained on Friday that the nuclear deal doesn’t make any mention of tests. “There is no prohibition on tests in the agreement... There is no specific mention of tests in the draft part,” Dr Kakodkar said. “In the text, there is a non-hindrance clause. There is no hindrance to activity outside the co-operation.”

On the provision of cessation, he said the co-operation “cannot be stopped abruptly” and “it has to go through a process”. “There is a provision for cessation and termination. To make sure that cessation and termination do not create difficulties in... running the programme, there are a series of steps... which have been spelt out in the agreement,” he said.

On the supply of nuclear resources, Dr Kakodkar noted that the pact provides for a fuel stockpile to last the lifetime of a reactor. The stockpile can come from both the US and non-US sources. “In the termination clause, there is a statement on fuel supply and building of stockpile continuation, and there can be “no derogation on it,” he added.