With India and the US approaching another crucial phase of negotiations over implementing the civilian nuclear agreement, India has flagged key issues that it wants to be addressed.
Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Monday, the prime minister’s special envoy on nuclear issues and climate change, Shyam Saran, said: “Inter-agency process within government has been concluded” for India to join the international nuclear liability convention.
With India’s “letter of intent” to produce up to 10,000 Mw of power using US nuclear reactors, it joining this convention is necessary for US companies to build reactors in India.
As a quid pro quo, while the US is keen that India joins the international nuclear liability convention since it many translate into $150-billion worth of projects, India wants to begin negotiations so that the spent nuclear fuel can be reprocessed in India itself.
As part of the 123 Agreement, India should set up a dedicated reprocessing plant for nuclear fuel obtained from foreign sources. Saran said the new US administration “is ready to engage with us at an early date.”
Saran also highlighted some of India’s concerns. As a step towards India’s integration into the global nuclear market, the prohibitionary mechanisms on the transfer of dual-use technologies to India must go, said Saran.
With specific reference to the US “Entity List,” which details Indian companies barred from purchasing or receiving US technology, he said this list must be “scrapped, sooner rather than later.”
Another problem before the US is its access to India’s booming energy and defence industries. Saran said India’s defence spending on “medium and long-term goals of force upgradation” meant acquisition plan for the next 10 years amount to $120 billion “could be reoriented towards the US” if sticking points — such as India’s doubts about reliability of US supplies and legal issues over end-use monitoring of defence equipment that has been supplied – are satisfactorily addressed.
Also, he said while India has not signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), it would work with the US “on practical steps to discourage proliferation.” With the nuclear deal in the bag, Saran said: “If the world moves categorically towards nuclear disarmament in a credible time-frame, then Indo-US differences over the CTBT would probably recede into the background.”
