Posted on 03/15/2006 8:06:51 PM PST by Irreverent
India-US nuke deal takes a Russian spin TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Washington/New Delhi/ Mumbai: Within 24 hours of Russia’s decision to supply 60 tonnes of enriched uranium to two atomic power plants at Tarapur, the Bush administration on Wednesday cautioned the Putin government against the move, saying Washington would prefer Moscow to wait till New Delhi honoured its obligations under the Indo-US nuclear deal. However, dismissing US reservations and defending the offer made by Russia — a member of the 45-country Nuclear Suppliers’ Group — India said the move did not violate NSG guidelines. “Russia has approached NSG under the Safety Exception Clause,” MEA spokesman Navtej Sarna said. But in Washington, a US State Department spokesman expressed serious reservations about the Russian initiative. “We recognise that...they (India) have need for fuel. And we think that deals to supply that fuel should move forward on the basis of a joint initiative, on the basis of steps that India has not yet taken,” the spokesman said. As an NSG member, Russia cannot supply fuel to countries, like India, that have not signed the NPT. But the Safety Clause allows fuel transfers if there is reason to believe that starving a reactor of fuel could result in a nuclear hazard. The US opposed a similar move by Russia a few years ago. The two Tarapur plants became operational in 1969. But after India detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1974, the US terminated fuel supplies to Tarapur. Russia has agreed to supply the urgently-needed uranium for the plants. A deal involving 60 tonnes of fuel is likely to be signed in New Delhi during Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov’s visit beginning Thursday.
Washington/New Delhi/ Mumbai: US non-proliferation purists have jumped on Russia’s offer to supply uranium to Tarapur as an example of how the Indo-US deal will trigger nuclear commerce with the prospect of Russia and China dealing with known proliferators such as Pakistan, Iran and North Korea. “It’s OK to supply fuel to India but let’s wait until India has taken the steps called for in the joint initiative to bring its programme in conformity with NPT standards,’’ a news agency quoted a senior official as saying. The Russian decision to supply fuel to Tarapur is likely to create ripples in Washington where US lawmakers are preparing to introduce a legislation in the Congress on Thursday to give effect to the Indo-US nuclear deal. A bill to amend the Atomic Energy Act will be introduced by Congressmen Henry Hyde and Tom Lantos in the House of Representatives, and by Senator Richard Lugar in the Senate, sources said. Though the US State Department has denied that the Russian supply has any connection to the nuclear deal, it is significant that the Russian offer was announced in Washington. The safety exception clause in the NSG guidelines was used by Russia in 2001 to supply fuel to Tarapur, though in 2003, the same clause could not be used by Russia under pressure from US. The Indo-US nuclear deal lifted the barrier to this emergency transaction. The Indo-US deal envisages the uninterrupted supply of fuel. The Russian announcement assumes significance because the July 18, 2005 Indo-US declaration says: “In the meantime, the US will encourage its partners to also consider this request (of fuel supplies for the safeguarded reactors at Tarapur expeditiously.’’) Russia has reportedly informed the NSG about its decision to provide fuel to Tarapur under the safety guidelines. Explaining the Russian decision, Nuclear Power Corporation CMD S K Jain said Russia began supplying fuel to Tarapur in 2002. “The announcement by the external affairs ministry on Tuesday is a renewal of that arrangement and augurs well for the future of both the units,’’ he said. But this argument may not cut much ice with Washington where the introduction of the enabling legislation is just the first step in a complex process. The deal would be complemented with other moves such as a US-India bilateral treaty and an agreement between India and the IAEA on safeguards, the sources said.
I can see this has really upset you. You seem to have lost your ability to spell lucidly.
Meanwhile, of course Russia is running to supply nuclear fuel to India. They dont want to lose influence, and a very very large and profitable market to the Americans.
Also, theyre building 2000MW nuclear power plants in southern India as we speak, and have been doing so for the last 4-5 years.
Bush's idea was absolutely sound. India already HAS and makes "nukular stuff" as you eloquently put it, on its own. Nukular power, nukular reactors, nukular bombs.
The United States doesnt lose anything on this deal. :)
It seems that the Head and the Body are singing to different tunes with a wide divergence between the White House and the Bureaucracy entrenched in the State Department. Alliances are not built in a day and definitely statements like these don’t make it any easier. The issue is in a sense cultural too. Statements like these have a large playing field in India where even words emanating from a State Department non-entity strengthens the scepticism about the benefits that Prime Minister Singh has been trying to sell. Indians may ask what’s all this hue and cry about the “nuclear deal” when the same kind of statements that have been the bane of US-India relationship continue to be aired in public.
There are three possibilities here, viz.
:=: the spokesman was caught off-guard and he gave the stock reply of negativism;
:=: he was really unaware of the fact that clauses regarding Indian commitments do not kick in till the Bush Administration amends Federal Laws and changes NSG Rules or that Tarapur Nuclear Plants are already safeguarded by IAEA, so technically they already fulfil the standards of the joint agreement. Perhaps he also forgot that a previous Administration broke an agreement with India to supply fuel for Tarapur and it is because of that fact that France and Russia have been forced to supply nuclear fuel interminently to prevent a nuclear incident. [The agreement stipulated that US shall supply fuel as long as India kept the plant under IAEA safeguards; In spite of US breaking its commitments, India still keeps the reactors under IAEA safeguards];
:=: his statement was an Administration sop to the non-proliferation hawks; and to demonstrate that US was not endangering or deviating from its non-proliferation goals;
:=: the Administration is nervous about Russia taking the lead and reaping the benefits of Bush’s vision, especially in light of the close ties between Russia and India.
PING
Well if a slap is involved here I guess its on India's face.Its not even been 3 weeks since the agreement was signed where the Administration agreed to find a cure for India's percieved Nuclear injustices and they are already back to the same kinda Jazz.
The supply by Russia is under the 'safety clause' i.e. if the fuel does not reach in time you might have a spectacular nuclear disaster. It was not intended as a blackmail I am sure. If US had supplied the fuel India would not have had to look elsewhere.
India counters U.S. objections to Russia's decision to supply fuel
Special Correspondent
Change your laws and we will buy Light Enriched Uranium from you too, Washington told
# Russian fuel supply "really has no connection to our nuclear deal with the U.S."
# Once the laws are amended "India looks forward to the U.S. emerging as a major partner... "
NEW DELHI: Dangling the carrot of "major" civilian nuclear imports before the United States in the event of a change in the laws there, India on Wednesday countered Washington's objections to Russia's decision to supply light enriched uranium (LEU) for the Tarapur plant.
"The U.S. is aware of the urgent need for fuel for Tarapur," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson said when asked for his response to Washington's reservations about the Russian decision. "There is no violation of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) guidelines and Russia has approached the group under the safety exception clause," he said. Senior officials told The Hindu that the Russian offer "really has no connection to our nuclear deal with the United States."
In all interactions over the past year, Russia assured India that it would continue to provide LEU for Tarapur as and when required, an official said. This point was reiterated when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to Moscow last December and the final technical details of the transfer were sorted out in January. However, Russia waited till India and the U.S. reached agreement on March 2 before notifying the NSG of its decision.
First shipment
The Hindu has learnt that the first shipment of LEU from Russia is expected to arrive in India "by the end of the month."
U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli on Tuesday said the Russian fuel offer was premature, as India was yet to implement the civilian-military separation commitments made in the July 18, 2005 nuclear agreement with the U.S.
"[We] recognise that ... they have need for fuel," said Mr. Ereli, when asked about the India-Russia deal. "And we think that deals to supply that fuel should move forward on the basis of a joint initiative, on the basis of steps that India will take that it has not yet taken."
In response, the MEA made it clear that it was now for the U.S. to take the next step forward. "India had made a request to the U.S. to supply fuel for Tarapur but this was not possible under current U.S. laws," the spokesperson said.
"The July 18 joint statement has stated that the U.S. will seek to adjust its laws and seek a change in NSG guidelines to enable full civil nuclear cooperation with India, including fuel supplies for the safeguarded reactors at Tarapur."
Noting that the U.S. Congress "is currently debating a change in laws, which would enable full civilian nuclear energy cooperation with India", the spokesperson said that once the U.S. laws were amended "India looks forward to the U.S. emerging as a major and reliable partner to India not only in respect of assured fuel supplies but for other aspects of civilian nuclear energy cooperation."
The MEA's suggestion that the U.S. could emerge as a "major" partner in the nuclear field echoes a similar point made by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a recent op-ed. "India plans to import eight nuclear reactors by 2012," she wrote in the Washington Post on March 13, adding, "If U.S. companies win just two of those reactor contracts, it will mean thousands of new jobs".
The spokesperson reiterated the U.S. commitment in the July agreement "in the meantime, to encourage its partners to consider India's request for such fuel supplies expeditiously."
He said India had had to seek urgent and limited supplies of uranium to enable the Tarapur plant to continue its operations in safety.
Concern in west over Russian plan to sell nuclear reactor fuel to India
By Guy Dinmore in Washington and Neil Buckley in Moscow
Published: March 16 2006 02:00 | Last updated: March 16 2006 02:00
Russia yesterday defended plans to sell nuclear fuel to India as western governments and advocates of arms control voiced concern that international guidelines were being weakened at a critical juncture for nuclear non-proliferation.
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Controversy over the deal highlights the complexities the Bush administration faces to promote its Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a plan to marry energy security with arms control by providing for an elite club of industrialised nations to supply developing countries with nuclear fuel before taking it back.
In advance of today's meeting of Group of Eight energy ministers in Moscow, Samuel Bodman, US energy secretary, yesterday called for international support for the plan, saying the US and Russia had a special responsibility to be "good stewards of the enormous nuclear legacy of the cold war".
But Russia, host of the G8 meeting, has upset fellow members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group by deciding to supply 60 tonnes of nuclear fuel to India, which is not a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
The UK said yesterday it had "a number of questions about this deal" that it would raise at next week's meeting of NSG experts.
A spokesman for Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's federal atomic energy agency, insisted the delivery of uranium would comply with the NSG's guidelines on nuclear fuel exports, which permitted such deliveries under an exception clause when safety was at stake.
A spokeswoman for Mr Bodman said Russia's plan to supply India with fuel had not been discussed during a meeting with Mr Kiriyenko.
The Russian agency's spokesman said India's Tarapur reactors were now operating with fuel burned out beyond projected levels, which affected their safety, since India did not have sufficient enrichment capacity to replace the fuel.
Member states of the NSG - an informal association that sets guidelines for trading in nuclear materials - were generally unhappy with Russia but could do little, diplomats said.
India's foreign ministry said Russia's decision conformed with the July 18 agreement between President George W. Bush and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh in Washington. Mr Bush then, the Indian foreign ministry noted, committed the US to working with "friends and allies to adjust international regimes to enable full civil nuclear energy co-operation and trade with India, including but not limited to expeditious consideration of fuel supplies for safeguarded reactors at Tarapur".
The US State Department expressed concern. But analysts noted its criticism was more muted than in 2001 when the US protested at Russia's decision to supply fuel to Tarapur, which is under UN safeguards.
"If Russia goes forth with the sale of nuclear material to India without consensus from the NSG, this will begin a new era in which the rules that governed nuclear trade for decades are gradually swept away," said Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.
The big picture is that Bush is trying to build a buffer of US-friendly countries around Red China, in order to better contain it. India, among others, is necessary in that plan.
Ridiculous.
India isnt asking the Russians to come over. The Russians are asking to be let in.
Its no slap in the face.
Just because the US made a deal with India, it certainly doesnt mean that the rest of the world will let commercial opportunities go.
Can you hold a country responsible for people wanting to sell to it? The pulls and pressure of economics dictate that not just the Russians, but also the French are going to be running to sell whatever they can to India.
As to blackmail, where is the question? What blackmail? The Russians will do what the Russians will do.
Even If noone sold India nuclear technology, you will note in my previous post, that India already has nuclear technology.
And, its been building reactors on its own for 30 years. You will note that the US has NOT been building reactors for about the same corresponding period.
So where is the sense in the US losing this commercial and strategic opportunity?
Thanks for the ping.
And if we don't do the deal, India may begin dabbling more with the Chinese on economic deals and ignore America.
I do not think so... its a simplistic view to think that just because of this India will start to ignore America... wish internationl relations were that simple.
Indians do see this deal as the touchstone of America's intent of making India a partner, but the present Indian Government is pragmatic and I think its not going to move closer to China for the sake of scoring a few points. However, I feel it will continue to be close to Russia and France to retain its strategic autonomy.
I think a lot of folks are yet to understand the wider impact of the Indo-US deal.It's not exactly a bilateral agreement,but more of a multilateral one & that's why Bush has faced flak.Till this agreement,the US,along with China has opposed sale of N-tech & fuel to India,while France & Russia were in favour,with the Brits more or less neutral.So whenever Paris or Moscow made proposals for N-cooperation with Delhi,the US would armtwist them to back off.Now with this framework in place,everyone,inc. the US can get a piece of the Indian pie.
India: New Delhi Diversifies Its Geopolitical Options
March 15, 2006 23 44 GMT
Summary
Responding to U.S. concerns about a deal that has Russia supplying India with nuclear fuel, New Delhi says the move is in keeping with international regulations. The Indian government is demonstrating that it is not relying solely on Washington for its strategic needs. While it will be procuring the fuel from Russia, India also wants to see the recent U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear agreement ratified, all in an effort to diversify its geopolitical options.
Analysis
An Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman said March 15 that Russia's proposal to supply 60 tons of nuclear fuel to the Tarapur atomic power station is entirely legitimate and does not violate the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) rules. A U.S. State Department spokesman said Russia should not provide uranium to India until the latter has fulfilled its obligations to the United States under the countries' recent nuclear deal. An Indian daily The Hindu reports that the first shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia is expected to arrive in India "by the end of the month."
That this deal with the Russians comes on the heels of the U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear agreement, which has yet to receive U.S. congressional approval, indicates that New Delhi is trying to achieve two objectives. First, it is signaling the United States that it is not about to limit itself to strategic ties only with Washington. Second, by securing a deal with the Russians, the Indians are trying to get the Bush administration to get the Indo-U.S. agreement pushed through Congress; they that the U.S. president is losing support within his own party, which currently controls Congress. In other words, India wants to show that, just because it is pursuing a long-term strategic alliance with Washington, it will not become its puppet, and it will be open to receiving nuclear fuel from a variety of suppliers. India can use U.S. President George W. Bush's declining popularity as an opportunity to drive this point home.
During Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's trip to Moscow in December 2005, he received assurances from Russian President Vladimir Putin that Moscow would provide nuclear fuel for the Tarapur power plant. Russia waited until its March 2 agreement with India before it notified the NSG about the deal. India maintains that it is completely within its rights to receive this much-needed fuel while negotiations with the United States are still in progress. In the agreement the United States made with India, Washington said it would supply the Tarapur plant, but New Delhi is letting Washington know that it does not want a U.S. monopoly over India's nuclear industry.
The move also allows the Singh government to enhance its domestic standing. Engaging the United States, Russia and France regarding its nuclear needs, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is countering political opposition at home that accused Singh of buckling under U.S. pressure regarding the Iranian nuclear issue. Managing multiple and parallel agreements with a number of countries allows Singh to sustain support from the Indian left, which it needs to sustain its majority in parliament.
More important, India views a strategic relationship with the United States as a means of enhancing its own objective to become a major global player as opposed to being seen both at home and abroad as simply a major U.S. ally or, worse, a U.S. proxy. New Delhi realizes that Washington's engagement with India is also about containing the extent to which India can emerge on the world scene. Therefore, the Russian deal allows India to limit the leverage that the United States can have with India.
Russia also gains from this process, since it is engaged in trying to counter U.S. incursions into its traditional geopolitical sphere of influence. In fact, the deal with India comes at a time when Moscow is vigorously trying to enhance its ability to play a major role in the Middle East.
There is a downside to India's trying to cut deals with Russia. The move could complicate matters for the Bush administration as it tries to secure congressional approval for the deal that Bush signed with Singh earlier this month. This is especially so since the window of opportunity is small; U.S. midterm elections will take place in November, which could further tie the hands of the Bush administration and delay the deal. Uncertainty surrounding the deal with the United States is another reason why India is not waiting for the U.S. deal to be finalized.
It is not as if civilian nuclear cooperation with the United States is not important for India -- indeed, New Delhi views it as a key step in becoming a major world power. At the same time, New Delhi does not want such cooperation to become a liability in terms of its strategic objectives.
China? China sold nuclear fuel to India in 2000 I think.
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Fuel supply: Russia echoes India |
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| NEW DELHI, March 16. — A day after India said that its fuel deal with Russia did not violate international guidelines, the Russian premier, Mr Mikhail Fradkov, aired similar views here. Answering a query at a business conference this evening, Mr Fradkov said that Russian supply of nuclear fuel to India “does not contradict international commitments”. “We informed the Nuclear Suppliers Group of us supplying fuel to the Tarapur power plant,” said Mr Fradkov, who arrived this evening on a two-day visit to India. Civilian nuclear energy tops the agenda of the Russian Prime Minister, who is accompanied by wife Elina. The couple was warmly received at Palam Technical Airport by the minister of state for external affairs, Mr Anand Sharma. The visit, which takes place in the wake of Russia’s decision to supply uranium to the Tarapur plant, is likely to culminate in the two countries signing a fuel supply deal. |
The Kudankulam Atomic Power plant is being built in Tamil Nadu with Russian help. According to a 2001 agreement, Russia, besides designing the plant, is committed to supplying 90 per cent of the equipment and material. The units I and II of the plant are scheduled to be operational by 2007 and 2008, respectively. India feels that the construction may not be completed on schedule and wants Russia to expedite supply of material, an official source said here, adding, the request could be made during Mr Fradkov’s meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh. Once commissioned, the two reactors are expected to generate 2,000 MW of power. |
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