NEW DELHI, 19 August 2007 — A top US official has said a controversial nuclear pact with New Delhi cannot be renegotiated amid demands from Indian critics for a radical reworking of the deal.
“We cannot renegotiate it because the agreement is done. Neither government wishes it to be renegotiated because it is now complete,” US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told Outlook magazine in an interview published on the weekend.
The agreement will allow New Delhi to buy atomic fuel, technology and plants even though it is not party to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but critics say it will limit India’s strategic options.
The agreement — reached last month after nearly two years of negotiations — has drawn heavy and widespread criticism from opposition parties and the government’s communist allies.
Burns declined to comment on criticism by the communists, whose support is crucial to the survival of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led coalition government in Parliament.
“So I don’t have any particular message for them except to say that in the 21st century we have seen the global balance of forces is shifting,” said Burns, the chief US negotiator of the deal.
“That it is in the common interest of India and the US to be partners, certainly on the effort to bring peace and stability in South and East Asia.” The Indian government came under mounting criticism after a US State Department spokesman said this week that the accord had provisions allowing Washington to terminate the agreement if India tested atomic weapons. Manmohan and Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee have said that the negotiation will not hinder the country’s nuclear testing options.
The communists — who held a two-day meeting in the national capital to work out their strategy in Parliament on the issue — say the agreement would also lead to US interference in India’s foreign policy.
But Burns dismissed the suggestion.
“No one is trying to challenge India’s sovereignty as a country to make its own decisions,” Burns said. Tensions between the government and its allies mounted last week after Manmohan told the Communists the deal would not be renegotiated and dared them to withdraw support for the ruling Congress coalition.
In an interview published over the weekend, Manmohan also hit out at the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its opposition on the issue.
“They didn’t even believe that I would last as the prime minister and some leaders even did havans (Hindu rituals) that I should die on a certain day,” Manmohan told India Today weekly magazine.
“It (the agreement) requires a big leap in approach and the attitude of BJP is disappointing.” Manmohan also recalled that the US president had told him in 2005, “Don’t expect me to help you to build bombs. I told him I didn’t expect the US to do that because with our previous achievements, we didn’t need anyone’s help.” On Friday, India’s Parliament erupted in furor after former Defense Minister George Fernandes accused Manmohan of misleading the country over terms of the deal and said if it had happened in China the premier would have received a “bullet in his head.” The deal still requires final US Congressional approval.
