India says nuclear deal will not spark arms race

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - India, pressing for U.S. congressional approval of a landmark nuclear energy agreement, on Thursday rejected suggestions the deal might provoke a South Asia arms race and reaffirmed its commitment to a voluntary moratorium on atomic weapons testing.

Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran also opened the door to New Delhi accepting certain unspecified congressional modifications to the deal as long as they do not upset the "delicate balance" of understandings negotiated with the Bush administration.

"We have not indulged in a nuclear weapons race before this agreement was arrived at (and) there is no reason why it should be expected that merely because we have an agreement on civil energy cooperation, that suddenly the floodgates would be opened by India for a larger and larger arsenal," he told the Heritage Foundation think tank.

Under the pact, agreed in principle last July 18, India would receive U.S. nuclear technology, including reactors and nuclear fuel, in return for separating its military and civil facilities and opening the civilian plants to international inspections.

India has been barred from acquiring foreign nuclear technology for three decades because it refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and developed nuclear weapons.

President George W. Bush is now seeking changes in U.S. law and international regulations to treat India as a special exemption, arguing that a close partnership with this rising democratic power and its new acceptance of certain international non-proliferation standards advances U.S. interests.

But the deal faces opposition on both fronts.

'FREE PASS' FOR INDIA?

Non-proliferation expert Michael Krepon of the Henry L. Stimson Center, in a Web site posting, said the administration's gamble that the nuclear deal's benefits will outweigh proliferation risks is "every bit as consequential as the decision to topple" Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

The deal gives India a "free pass" on nuclear testing, fissile material production and stockpile growth, he said.

Some experts fear that an administration promise to ensure India an indefinite supply of nuclear reactor fuel means Washington is giving up leverage to halt technology cooperation if India, which tested nuclear weapons in 1998, does so again. Continued ...

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