Indo-US nuke negotiations start again

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, April 24 : India and the US are set for key negotiations to finalise the bilateral nuclear deal when Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanker Menon meets US undersecretary for political affairs Nicholas Burns in Washington on May 1.

Considering India’s ambassador to Singapore S. Jaishanker, who has led the Indian side in talks so far, will be joining Menon’s delegation in the US next week, the upgraded nuclear talks are an indicator of the seriousness with which both countries are keen on settling the issue.

At stake is the nuclear status that India will be given by the US and the rest of the world. While New Delhi would ideally like to retain the right to test nuclear weapons, problem is that any country who does so under US law will lose the right to any further nuclear cooperation.

But it seems now that both sides could simply sidestep any direct mention of India’s desire to keep its unilateral moratorium as well as the consequences that could follow. Omission of such language would allow both administrations to save face with their own hawks.

Clearly, too, the so-called ``hardline’’ Indian position on testing may be a bargaining position, even if its an extreme one. One section of the Indian establishment feels that having gone so far with India on nuclear cooperation, the Bush administration could blink if New Delhi now offers minor compromises.

On the other hand, if minor compromises with the US end up in major gains for India, it would make Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, especially after the debacle the Congress is likely to suffer in the UP elections, look like a strong leader at the Centre.

``Failure is not an option,’’ highly placed sources in the establishment said, pointing out that the Indo-US nuclear deal is the only major achievement of the UPA government so far.

The inability to settle the Pakistan problem or arrive at a border solution with China, in fact, increases the pressure to arrive at a compromise with the US on the nuclear deal.

New Delhi realizes that it must finalise the deal over the next few weeks. Soon enough, the Bush administration will go into election campaign mode, and interest in India will flag. The key is to put just enough pressure on Washington, so that it is able to still ignore its own non-proliferationists.

Menon is actually going to Washington to participate in a Global Issues forum with his counterpart, Paula Dobriansky on April 30. The day after he will hold bilateral negotiations with Nick Burns, of which the key issue are negotiations on the nuclear deal.

ENDS