Nuke deal opponents focus on U.S. Congress

The Democratic-led U.S. Congress is coming under heavy pressure from environmental and arms control lobbyists to reject the White House's move to sell U.S. nuclear technologies to India.

'The Bush administration's proposal undermines over 30 years of nonproliferation policy,' said John Isaacs of the Council for a Livable World, an arms control research organisation. 'It's dangerous and unprecedented.'

Issacs's group is part of a new coalition comprising more than 20 prominent environmental organisations and policy think tanks, which is currently involved in intense lobbying efforts against the George W. Bush administration's proposed nuclear deal with India. The agreement would give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment in exchange for New Delhi's agreement to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities.

For the agreement to be completed, it must also be approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and must receive unconditional exemption from the rules for nuclear commerce set by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers' Group.

Members of the coalition's Campaign for Responsibility in Nuclear Trade describe the proposed agreement with India as 'detrimental' because it could provoke others in the region to start or expand nuclear weapons programmes.

Issacs thinks that it will not only increase India's capability to produce nuclear weapons, but will also send the wrong message to Pakistan in a time of crisis in that country.

David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, which is also part of the coalition, agrees. '[This] deal will worsen nuclear dangers by undermining the nuclear nonproliferation regime, increasing India's nuclear weapons capacity, provoking Pakistan and possibly China,' he told IPS.

Krieger thinks that the deal would set 'a terrible precedent by providing nuclear benefits to a country that has never joined the nonproliferation treaty and has developed a significant nuclear arsenal.'

Both India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed countries that have gone to war with each other three times since they gained independence in 1947.

The proposed deal, according to the coalition, would destabilise South Asia and weaken international and U.S. laws, including the Hyde Act, which Congress passed in 2006 to provide a framework for nuclear cooperation with India.

The proposed agreement with India over the supply of nuclear technology was first announced by senior U.S. officials in August 2007 after New Delhi assured the Bush administration that it would use the imported technology for civilian, not military purposes.

But critics of the accord say it's hard for them to believe that India, which possesses a significant number of nuclear warheads, would live up to its promise.

'[It] may promote not only a possible arms race between India and Pakistan, but also [between] India and China, as well,' John Boroughs of the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Nuclear Policy told IPS.

Some experts see the Bush administration move as a clear divergence from international opinion on India's status as a nuclear armed nation. A U.N. Security Council resolution requires that no country export 'equipment, materials, or technology that could in any way assist programmes in India or Pakistan for nuclear weapons.'

The 1998 resolution was adopted by consensus soon after both India and Pakistan tested their nuclear devices in defiance of international opinion against the spread of nuclear weapons.

Currently, India has 14 nuclear energy reactors in commercial operation and nine under construction. According to the Uranium Resource Centre, the country's nuclear power supplies account for about 3 percent of total electricity production.

For its part, India stron