Rice defends India nuclear deal

[DaSangarTalib]

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged Congress to ratify a deal to give India civil nuclear technology.

She told a senate committee the deal was good for the US, India and also the international community.

Many in Congress, including prominent Republicans, say the deal rewards India even though it developed its own nuclear bomb.

Ms Rice said the deal would increase US influence in the region and that earlier policies had isolated India.

The US applied sanctions against India - which has not signed the 1972 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) - after it developed its nuclear arsenal.

'Untenable situation'

Under the terms of the deal, finalised last month during a visit by US President George Bush, energy-hungry India will get access to US civil nuclear technology.

In return, India will classify 14 of its 22 nuclear facilities as being for civilian use, and thus open to full international inspection.

The US Congress must agree to amend existing legislation for the deal to go ahead.

Giving testimony to the Senate foreign relations committee, Ms Rice defended the deal as ending India's isolation from international nuclear standards.

She said past non-proliferation policies had not worked and that India was unlikely ever to sign up to the NPT.

"We are simply seeking to address an untenable situation," she told senators.

"This agreement does bring India into the non-proliferation framework, and does strengthen the regime."

'Bumpy ride'

Ms Rice also rejected critics' claims that the deal could boost India's nuclear arsenal.

"Civil nuclear co-operation with India will not lead to an arms race in South Asia," she said.

Ms Rice stressed the importance of the "deepening strategic partnership" between India and the US.

Obstructing or altering the terms of the deal could redouble "all the hostility and suspicion of the past", she warned Congress, recalling Cold War tensions.

She said the deal would improve energy security, by reducing India's reliance on fuel from Iran, and help the environment by cutting its carbon emissions.

The agreement has been welcomed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Britain, France and Russia, Ms Rice added.

However, many arms control experts are unhappy with the agreement and argue that Washington should have struck a harder bargain, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says.

The analysts fear assistance to India's civil programme could free-up additional radioactive material for bomb-making purposes, he says.

The legislation looks set to have a bumpy ride in Congress and could be delayed or even amended, our correspondent says, and the Indian side has already suggested it would not be happy with a more restrictive deal.

BBC