Nuclear deal with India meets skepticism in Washington

WASHINGTON: Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state, has reiterated that the just-completed nuclear deal with India complies with U.S. law, but some experts doubted that, and lawmakers said the agreement could face a rough road in the U.S. Congress.

Congressional sources and other experts said Wednesday the agreement reached last week appears to go a long way toward meeting the demands of the Indian nuclear establishment, giving New Delhi rights only accorded to Japan and the European Union, core allies of Washington.

"The administration is going to call this a success even though from policy and legal perspectives, there are major problems," said one congressional source, who spoke anonymously because he learned details of the deal on a confidential basis.

The pact, approved by the Indian cabinet Wednesday, would allow India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment, even though New Delhi has refused to join nonproliferation pacts and has tested nuclear weapons.

"We're very satisfied because we know the agreement is well within the bounds of the Hyde Act," Burns told reporters after testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Hyde Act, approved by Congress in December, created an exception to U.S. export law to allow nuclear cooperation with India. The nuclear accord, called a 123 agreement after a section of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, spells out technical details for that nuclear cooperation.

Like the Hyde Act, the 123 agreement must be approved by Congress. But that cannot happen until India agrees on a program of inspections of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group changes its rules.

"None of this will happen this year," the congressional source said.

In a letter to President George W. Bush, 22 members of Congress, including some who had voted for the accord, said a 123 agreement that does not meet the Hyde Act's minimal conditions "places congressional approval deeply into doubt."

The conditions include no nuclear testing, permanent and unconditional IAEA inspections of declared Indian nuclear materials and facilities, and an end to nuclear cooperation if the agreement is violated.

Others are a ban on transferring enrichment and reprocessing technology to India and a requirement that Washington give prior approval on a case-by-case basis before India reprocesses U.S. nuclear material, the letter noted.

"These conditions and restrictions are not optional nor are they advisory," said Edward Markey, a Democratic representative from Massachusetts, who organized the letter.

"They were passed by the Congress and signed by the president. If the 123 agreement has been intentionally negotiated to sidestep or bypass the law and the will of Congress, final approval for this deal will be jeopardized," he added.

Experts and congressional sources said the United States agreed to give India advance, long-term permission to reprocess U.S.-origin nuclear material once New Delhi builds a new reprocessing facility that would only use such material.

This is happening despite the fact that the Americans "do not give consent rights to reprocess except to our closest allies, Japan and Euratom," the European Atomic Energy Community, said Sharon Squassoni, a nonproliferation expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The 123 agreement also says Washington has the right to have India return U.S.-origin fuel and technology if New Delhi tests another nuclear device but stipulates "this will not undercut their fuel assurances," a congressional source said.

This apparently means that while the United States might cut off nuclear cooperation in the event of an Indian nuclear test, it will seek to ensure India continues receiving fuel from other sources, he and other experts said.

Australia signaled Thursday it is edging toward a decision to sell uranium to India despite the refusal by New Delhi to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, The Associated Press reported from Canberra.

The Australian daily newspaper reported that Alexander Downer, the foreign minister, would soon make a submission to cabinet ministers in favor of such sales, and a senior government minister said he would support the move under the right conditions.

"There is speculation in today's paper that the government will look at that and if it comes to the government, of course we'll look at it," Treasurer Peter Costello told Melbourne Radio 3AW. "I would want to know that there were very strict safeguards in place before we sold to any country that was outside the Nonproliferation Treaty."

India would become Australia's first uranium customer that is not part of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.