US to scrap nuclear deal if India tests weapons

WASHINGTON: The United States will scrap a landmark nuclear deal with India if New Delhi conducts an atomic weapons test, the State Department said Tuesday.

The statement came as the two governments gave different interpretations of the controversial nuclear deal's recently adopted operating agreement, also known as the 123 agreement.

"The proposed 123 agreement has provisions in it that in an event of a nuclear test by India, then all nuclear cooperation is terminated," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

There is also a "provision for return of all materials, including reprocessed material covered by the agreement," he said.

His comments came a day after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament that the agreement would not affect the Asian giant's military program or any plans to test nuclear weapons.

Singh said "the agreement does not in any way affect India's right to undertake future nuclear tests, if it is necessary."

"There is no question that we will ever compromise, in any manner, our independent foreign policy. We shall retain our strategic autonomy," Singh had said.

The operating agreement was officially approved by the two governments about two weeks ago after exhaustive discussions spanning two years.

But US law also requires mandatory Congress approval of the pact. Legislators, who have vowed to go scrutinize the pact, last year approved in principle the "Henry Hyde Act" allowing export of civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India.

The move reversed decades of sanctions imposed after India's nuclear tests.