Hillary Clinton - SM Krishna strategic dialogue long on intent, short on strategy; US makes it clear to India that it will not dump Pakistan

Indian delegation led by external affairs minister SM Krishna and US delegation headed by Hillary Clinton participating in the second India - US strategic dialogue at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Tuesday, 19 July 2011

New Delhi

19 July 2011

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton interspersed her conversations in New Delhi with ifs and buts, conveying to a discerning Indian audience that the US was hedging on its commitments and, in the process, reinforcing a suspicion that the second edition of the India-US strategic dialogue was long on intent but short on strategy.

Ms Clinton's remarks during the course of her talks with external affairs minister SM Krishna on Tuesday, and a joint media event which followed it, were littered with qualifications: The US will support full civil nuclear cooperation with India but the bilateral pact has to be "enforceable and actionable in all regards"; the US stands by the clean Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) waiver to India but the Indian nuclear liability law needs to be aligned with global practices; and, the US government cannot tolerate safe havens for terrorists anywhere but "we do see Pakistan as a key ally" in the war on terror and "we want a long-term relationship with" it.

There was no express commitment from Ms Clinton to either sell or to allow the sale of enrichment and reprocessing technologies to India following the NSG decision to bar their sale to non-NPT signatories such as India. There was no mention of it in the joint statement either. All she would venture to say in response to a question posed to her at the media interaction was that Washington supports the September 2008 clean waiver for India and it will push for India's membership of multilateral export control regimes such as the NSG.

Instead, Ms Clinton hastened to remind India of its commitment to ensure a level playing field for US companies seeking to enter the Indian nuclear energy sector. She voiced Washington's desire to see the Indian nuclear liability law tweaked to protect American corporate interests.

"We would encourage engagement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that the liability regime that India adopts by law fully conforms with the international requirements under the convention[.] We are committed to [the nuclear pact.] But we do expect it to be enforceable and actionable in all regards," Ms Clinton noted.

She also reminded New Delhi to ratify the Convention on Supplementary Compensation by the end of 2011. The treaty will allow foreign companies supplying nuclear material and technology to India to tap into a global corpus of funds in order to pay damages in the event of a nuclear accident.

Amplifying Ms Clinton's remarks, the joint statement said that the participation of US nuclear energy firms in India should be on the basis of "mutually acceptable technical and commercial terms and conditions that enable a viable tariff regime for electricity generated."

Dwelling on regional issues, Ms Clinton said that Pakistan has "a special obligation to [cooperate] transparently, fully and urgently" in the interest of justice for the victims of the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. She iterated that the US will continue to urge Pakistan to bring the 26/11 terrorists to justice but she qualified it by saying that "there is a limit to what both the United States and India can do".

Ms Clinton said that sale of defence technologies will help the Indian and American militaries to work together on maritime security, combating piracy, and providing relief to the victims of natural disasters. She also pushed for market access, reduction of trade barriers, and US investments in India, indicating that Washington viewed its ties with India in transactional, not strategic, terms.

For India's part, Mr Krishna sought to impress upon the American delegation that it was necessary for the US to factor in Afghanistan's ground realities and work closely with President Hamid Karzai's government so that conditions could be created where terrorists did not make any more advances in Afghanistan.

Mr Krishna said that India and the US had agreed to resume negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty. He urged the US to consider a "totalisation agreement" with India for the purpose of avoiding double taxation of income with respect to social security taxes. The agreement is essential for determining whether an Indian national is subject to the US social security or medicare tax or Indian social security taxes.

A bilateral aviation safety agreement and a memorandum of understanding on cyber security were the two tangible outcomes of the India-US dialogue.

Ms Clinton called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and met with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, and national security adviser Shivshankar Menon, among others.

Japan may suspend N-talks with India, puts Manmohan Singh's ambitious nuclear programme in jeopardy

New Delhi

16 July 2011

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ambitious nuclear energy
programme risks being grounded even before it could take off with Japan
signalling its intention to suspend negotiations with India, and other
countries, for sale of nuclear-power equipment and technology.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan has indicated his personal preference
for phasing out nuclear power in his country. It could not have come at
a worse time for Prime Minister Singh, whose government is reeling
under the effects of a recent Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) decision to
restrict the sale of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies.
His government is also battling pressure from American government and
companies alike, to cushion the impact of Indias civil nuclear
liability law on the suppliers. That and the growing climate of
disenchantment with nuclear energy following the Fukushima disaster in
Japan could potentially unravel Prime Minister Singhs nuclear gambit
for which he has had to invest significant political capital in his
first term in office.

Japan needs to sign bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement with India

and have it ratified by its parliament before it can export nuclear
power technology and equipment. Compounding the problem for India is
that a delay in wrapping up the India-Japan bilateral nuclear pact will
pose a handicap for companies, both Japanese and foreign. Two major US
firms, General Electric and Westinghouse, are either partly or wholly
owned by Japanese companies. Even the French state-owned nuclear power
group Areva has a tie-up with Mitsubishi of Japan.

From the editions in Bengaluru (right), and Chennai (bottom-right)

India is keen to tap Japans experience of constructing the Rokkasho

reprocessing plant with indigenous technology in 1992. India has
concluded negotiations for a reprocessing pact with the US which will
allow setting up of at least two dedicated facilities for reprocessing
US-origin spent nuclear fuel under IAEA safeguards. India and Japan

share similarities in their strategies for the development of nuclear
power. Both have adopted a closed fuel cycle, which entails management
of toxic waste by reprocessing the spent nuclear fuel. Also, they have
opted for a comprehensive fuel cycle, from mining to reprocessing. The
Rokkasho plant has built-in IAEA monitoring equipment and other
advanced design features and India can do with Japan's experience for
designing a state of the art, modern reprocessing facility here.

India and Japan have held three rounds of negotiations so far. Both
sides exchanged views on various aspects related to nuclear energy as
recently as April this year, during foreign secretary Nirupama Raos
talks in Tokyo. Both sides will continue to discuss the way forward
for cooperation in this sphere, a statement issued towards the end of

her visit had said.

India, Netherlands FMs discuss new NSG rules, but statement skirts issue

New Delhi

5 July 2011

A statement issued after external affairs minister SM Krishna's talks with his Dutch counterpart Uri Rosenthal in New Delhi on Tuesday was silent on the new Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) guidelines limiting the sale of sensitive enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies to NPT signatories only. However, the issue was understood to have been discussed in the meeting, coming as it did less than a fortnight after the NSG plenary at Noordwijk in the Netherlands, which concluded on June 24.

The Netherlands is currently the chair of the 46-member NSG.

India has not signed the NPT, and, therefore, it views the revised guidelines as impinging on the clean waiver it got from the NSG in September 2008. The guidelines have not been published in open text as yet, but the Dutch minister's visit here would have served India to fully discuss them and draw appropriate conclusions from it. The sentiment in the NSG on India's quest for the membership of the group, and the sale of two new reactors by China to Pakistan, were understood to have been discussed, too. In May, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had met with the NSG Troika, comprising the Netherlands, New Zealand and Hungary, in The Hague.

The situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, West Asia, North Africa, and UN reforms figured in their discussions, too. The Dutch minister had visited Afghanistan before arriving in New Delhi. The Netherlands was the first NATO ally to withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan in August 2010, but it was helping in training the Afghan security forces, which India was doing, too.

Meanwhile, France reiterated its commitment to full civil nuclear cooperation with India in all aspects, including, but not limited to, nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear fuel. In his second statement in five days, France's ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont said, " ... nothing in the existing and future guidelines shall be interpreted as detracting from that exemption or reducing the ambition of our bilateral cooperation."

He qualified it by saying that the scope of bilateral civil nuclear cooperation would be consistent with France's national policies and international obligations, including the NPT. The reiteration by France follows foreign secretary Nirupama Rao's interview to an Indian television channel in which she hinted that India could choose not to buy nuclear reactors from countries that would not sell ENR technologies to it.

After US and Russia, France reassures India on clean NSG waiver

New Delhi

1 July 2011

After the United States and Russia, France has iterated its commitment to full civil

nuclear cooperation with India.

The French government has said that the Nuclear Suppliers Group's (NSG's) recent

decision, to bar transfer of sensitive enrichment and reprocessing technologies to non-

NPT signatories, does not undermine the waiver granted to India in September 2008.

"The decision taken by the NSG is not a measure targeting any particular State. This

decision is the fruit of prolonged discussions initiated in 2004. Coming after the decision

of exemption from the full-scope safeguards clause, adopted in favour of India in

September 2008, it does not undermine the principles of this exemption," Jerome

Bonnafont, the French ambassador to India, said.

In a statement, the envoy also said, "France confirms that this NSG decision in no way

undermines the parameters of our bilateral cooperation, and is committed to the full

implementation of our cooperation agreement on the development of peaceful uses of

nuclear energy signed on September 30, 2008."

Bonnafont emphasised that France was strongly committed to the development of an innovative, broad-based and dynamic civilian nuclear cooperation with India.

The NSG held its plenary at Noordwijk in the Netherlands in June.

Further, Bonnafont said President Nicolas Sarkozy of France announced his support for India's membership of four multilateral export control regimes during his visit to India in December 2010, and
France iterated its "full and complete support" to India's membership of the NSG in
its meeting which concluded on June 24.

In September 2008, France became the first country to sign a bilateral civilian nuclear

accord with India after the NSG granted a landmark waiver to New Delhi, reopening

global civilian nuclear commerce after a gap of 34 years. The French envoy's assurance

on his country's commitment to full civilian nuclear cooperation came a day after

outgoing US ambassador Timothy Roemer stressed that Washington was firmly

committed to NSG's clean waiver to India.

NSG tightens rules, but US reassures India

New Delhi

24 June 2011

Access to sensitive nuclear technologies used for the enrichment of uranium or the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel just got tougher, with the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) approving new guidelines to limit their transfers only to the countries complying with their non-proliferation obligations and that meet agreed standards for nuclear safeguards, safety and security.

On the face of it, the three non-NPT signatories of India, Pakistan and Israel could be affected by the amendments, but, equally, other countries of concern could be the targets, too. However, the US department of state has clarified that the new restrictions should not be construed as detracting from the "unique impact and importance" of the US-India nuclear deal or diluting the US' commitment to full civil nuclear cooperation with India.

Simply put, the new guidelines would not impinge or adversely affect the "clean" NSG exception given to India in September 2008 or restrict India's access to enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies. Also, India remains on course for becoming the 47th member of the nuclear cartel, which was formed in 1974 in response to the nuclear test by India earlier that year.

A US state department press release said, "The NSG's NPT references, including those in the ENR guidelines, in no way detract from the exception granted to India by NSG members in 2008 and in no way reflect upon India's non-proliferation record." It also noted that "efforts in the NSG to strengthen controls on the transfers of ENR areconsistent with long-standing US policy that pre-dates the civil nuclear agreement [with India] and have been reaffirmed on an annual basis by the G-8 for years."

Further, it iterated the US' support for India's membership of the NSG and three other export control regimes -- the Australia Group, the Wassenaar Arrangement, and the Missile Technology Control Regime -- in a phased manner. The US was understood to have circulated a note on India's membership of the NSG, proposing in it that signing on to the NPT need not be a mandatory criterion. India recognises that becoming an NSG member will take time because the group operates by consensus, and all members, China included, need to unanimously make a decision.

On the eve of the NSG's meeting, India had voiced deep reservations about a move by the cartel to withhold the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technology to the non-NPT signatories. It had contended that doing so would dilute the import or the message of the exemption granted to India in 2008. Recently, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had discussed this, and other matters, with Ellen Tauscher, the US under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs, in Vienna. Ms Rao had also impressed upon her American interlocutor that India's membership of the four export control regimes should be a package deal.

India voices reservation on NSG move to deny transfer of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies

New Delhi

19 June 2011

India has voiced deep reservations about a move by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to withhold the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology (or ENR) to non-NPT signatories such as India. New Delhi has contended that doing so would dilute the import or the message of the exemption granted to India in September 2008.

Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao was understood to have discussed this, and other matters, with Ellen Tauscher, United States under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs in Vienna last week. Ms Rao also met Yukiya Amano, the director-general of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

A government source said that India's quest for the membership of multilateral export control organisations or regimes, such as the NSG, the Australia Group (to prevent the spread of chemical and biological weapons), the Wassenaar Arrangement (for dual-use goods and technologies), and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), figured in those discussions.

India and the US do not agree on everything, the source pointed out, indicating that certain issues required further negotiations. Simultaneously, India was reaching out to the other NSG members, including the NSG Troika comprising New Zealand, Hungary and the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, New Delhi has urged the international community to jointly combat piracy in the Indian Ocean region. At least 550 persons, including 39 Indian nationals, were still being held hostage by Somali pirates. There have been 165 incidents, including 45 hijackings, this year.

It maintained that it could not provide security to every single sailor or pay ransom to secure their release. "If we pay ransom for one, then all Indian soldiers will become sitting ducks for pirates as they will know that government will pay," a source said.