Nuclear Isolation Comes To an End for India: Now On the Pathway To a Nuclear Future
On Saturday, the 6th of September 2008, 34 years of nuclear isolation for India came to an end in the Austrian capital of Vienna. After going into a few extra days of meetings, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) finally agreed to a nuclear waiver for India, thus giving the country “full civil nuclear cooperation” and complete access to the nuclear market. The move also allows India to resume civil nuclear cooperation with the world despite possessing nuclear weapons.
After getting the NSG waiver, the next stop for the deal is Washington, where it would be put in front of the US Congress. The Indo-US nuclear pact will then be approved or rejected by an up and down vote. However and irrespective of the decision taken by the US Congress, India can now buy reactors and fuel from countries like Russia and France. India now wakes to a nuclear dawn.
“This is a forward-looking and momentous decision. It marks the end of India’s decades long isolation from the nuclear mainstream and (from the) technology denial regime”, is how Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India reacted to the NSG decision. The unprecedented decision of the 45 nations nuclear cartel to give exemption to a country that has neither signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) nor the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is but a stepping stone in the implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The Prime Minster of India also thanked the US and other member countries for the role they played in the waiver. Minutes after the NSG decision, he stated that the deal is in recognition of India’s impeccable non-proliferation credentials and its status as a state with advanced nuclear technology. “It will give an impetus to India’s pursuit of environmentally sustainable economic growth,” Dr. Singh further added.
Speaking on India, the world and Climate Change issues, Dr. Singh indicated that the opening of full civil nuclear cooperation between India and the international community will be good for the country and the world. ”We look forward to establishing a mutually beneficial partnership with friendly countries in an area which is important for both global energy security as well as to meet the challenge of climate change,” he said.
While protests against mainstreaming nuclear energy (and against the Indo-US Nuclear Deal) have been on for some time, no civil society group or individual has so far responded to the deal. The only opposition that is coming is from the Left party politicians in the country who think “the waiver appears to be neither clean nor unconditional.”
Image Courtesy Aerial Photography at Flickr under Creative Commons.
i think that it is a load of rubbish !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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