New Delhi: Has America - under President Barack Obama - gone back on its promise to facilitate nuclear technology transfers to India?
As the summit wound down, America got the G8 members to include in their non proliferation statements, a reference clearly directed at India.
No G8 member will transfer nuclear Enrichment and Reprocessing Technologies (ENR) to countries that have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The references have not been made public. But a senior G8 diplomat confirmed this to The Hindu newspaper.
The G8 countries are all members of the NSG and were part of the decision taken last year to give India a clean exemption from the NSG's export rules
It enabled India to import and use nuclear technologies under safeguards.
“Now what the G8 is saying is safeguards is not enough you need to be a signatory to the NPT which is something India can't do because India has nuclear weapons. I think Indian diplomacy has been complacent. All the signs were there that the NSG, the G8 and the US were going in that direction,” says journalist Siddharth Varadarajan.
The Indian Government is expected to react only after the full text of the G8 document is made available.
In the meantime, diplomats say India needs to put in place a counter-strategy.
“I would personally till this issue is not resolved not import a single American reactor. I think that is the ultimate leverage we hold. We should then try and negotiate with France and Russia that their own exports to us will be slowed down if this happens because we will have to reprocess the spent fuel,” feels diplomat G Parthasarathy.
The counter-strategy will also build on the fact that India is close to mastering ENR technology .. and the West cannot seriously expect India to cut its carbon emissions without allowing access to clean nuclear technologies.
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