By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : The United States sought to temper the raging debate in India over their civil nuclear deal by saying that India is sovereign but 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 that we are not testing and I don’t think you see advanced nuclear countries around the world testing,” state department spokesman Sean McCormack said 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 and certainly, that provides the President options in acting in the event that there is a test.”
“The whole issue is India is sovereign, but we’re not encouraging any states to test at this point,” 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.
Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured the Indian parliament that “the agreement does not in any way affect India’s right to undertake future nuclear tests, if it is necessary,” McCormack had Tuesday added fuel to the fire in New Delhi with his blunt assertion that a test by India would lead to scrapping of the deal.
“The proposed 123 Agreement has provisions in it that in an event of a nuclear test by India, then all nuclear cooperation is terminated, as well as there is provision for return of all materials, including reprocessed material covered by the agreement,” he then said.
While the text of the draft agreement hammered out here last month does not mention testing at all to accommodate India, it does leave the US president’ s options open to seek return of nuclear material if the deal is terminated for unspecified reasons.
Thus by focusing on varied nuances of the deal, which is in fact a delicate balancing of their respective positions, New Delhi and Washington are seeking to address their vocal critics at home.
While critics in India are crying hoarse over alleged constraints on India’s right to test weapons, opponents of the deal in US are angry that the deal ends years of denial of nuclear technology to India because of India’s tests in 1974 and its refusal to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT).