Nuke Deal: UPA, Left May Meet Again in April
Mar 18, 2008 (Business Standard)
A terse note that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the Left parties would meet again, possibly in April-end, to discuss the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement was the only reaction to come out of the much-awaited meeting of the two sides today. The meeting concluded in less than an hour after it started.
The 123 Doesn’t Add Up
Mar 17, 2008 (Hindustan Times)
The United States concludes bilateral inter-governmental agreements on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in terms of the provisions of Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act, 1954. It has concluded such ‘123 Agreements’ with 24 countries up till now.
Two Indian Nuclear Scientists Denied Australian Visa
Mar 17, 2008 (The Times of India)
MELBOURNE: Two Indian nuclear scientists were denied Australian visa last year on "health and character" grounds as Canberra feared they could access information that may assist "India's weapons of mass destruction programme", a media report said on Monday.
Deadlock Over India-U.S. Nuclear Deal Unresolved
Mar 17, 2008 (Reuters)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's government and its communist allies failed on Monday to break a deadlock over a controversial nuclear deal with the United States, but said they would meet again next month to discuss the pact. The communists oppose the deal as harmful for India's security and have threatened to bring the government down if it tried to push it through.
Nuclear Deal: No Clear Reason
Mar 16, 2008 (Live Mint)
As the United Progressive Alliance-Left joint committee on the US-India nuclear deal meets today, it’s highly unlikely that the Left will agree to any further negotiation on the agreement. Whether or not this meeting substantively discusses the safeguards (inspections) agreement drafted with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Left’s veto will probably stand.
Requiem for the India-US Nuclear Deal?
Mar 16, 2008 (Khaleej Times)
JUST days after the United Progressive Alliance launched what looked like a determined last-ditch effort to ram through the United States-India nuclear deal, the agreement seems ready to go into cold storage, if not oblivion.It’s almost certain to miss the US political timetable, which requires that the deal be sent to the Senate by May for ratification.
India Seeking Wide Choice of Partners in Pursuing Nuke Commerce: Shyam Saran
Mar 15, 2008 (Thaindian)
New Delhi (ANI): Former Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Special Envoy on the Indo-U.S.-India civil nuclear deal, Shyam Saran, has said that India’s objective in going through with it is to have a wide choice of partners in pursuing nuclear commerce and high technology trade.
US Firm, CEO Admit Weapon, Nuclear-Linked Export Violations
Mar 14, 2008 (AFP)
WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US company and the Indian head of an international firm have admitted to violating laws on export of weapons technology and nuclear power testing equipment to India, the US Justice Department said Thursday. Decade-long US sanctions over illegal Indian nuclear tests prohibit US-based companies from exporting certain goods and services to India.
Indian Embassy Worker Tied to Arms Conspiracy
Mar 14, 2008 (The Washington Post)
An employee with the Indian Embassy in Washington and Indian government agencies conspired with an international electronics executive to obtain secret weapons technology from U.S. companies, according to a guilty plea the businessman made yesterday in federal court.
We Can Sign Nuclear Deal with Minority Government: US
Mar 14, 2008 (The Economic Times)
NEW DELHI: The US has said that it will not be averse to inking the nuclear deal with a minority government in India. This assertion must be comforting for the pro-nuclear deal sections in the government and the Congress. Our basic government position is that we can sign an agreement with a duly-constituted government, whatever its political status, US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher said in an interview to a weekly.
Clinton Backs India Nuclear Pact
Mar 14, 2008 (News Today)
Former US president Bill Clinton has said future American governments will honour the Washington's nuclear deal with India. His comments on Thursday in New Delhicame amid speculation over the fate of the deal after President George Bush leaves office. 'In general, when new governments come in, they tend to honour the commitments of the previous administrations,' Clinton said.
N-Deal: Does May Hold the Key?
Mar 13, 2008 (Sify News)
A last-ditch effort is being made by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government to push through the Indo-US nuclear deal. If things work out according to the government's game plan, the draft of the 123 Agreement could be placed before the US Congress for its approval by July. For more than a year the nuclear deal has been in the centre of the political discourse in India. The ruling Congress' main allies — the Left parties — are opposed to the deal. They fear that by signing the deal India would lose its sovereign foreign policy and firmly place itself in the US security orbit. The government and supporters of the deal firmly believe that it is the best agreement that India could get. They argue that it would not only break the "nuclear apartheid" India had been facing for decades, but also elevate its status as a nuclear weapons state and allow it access to sophisticated and dual-use technologies. The growing urgency in the government to push through the deal has much to do with developments in the US as well as within India. The possibility of a Democrat President coming into office in the US in January next year, has raised concerns about the future of the nuke deal.
'India working toward NSG waiver'
Mar 13, 2008 (Hindustan Times)
In a statement that is bound to raise the hackles of the Left parties, the Indian government reiterated on Thursday it was working towards an international waiver that would enable the resumption of nuclear commerce after a 30-year hiatus. "We are working towards getting the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to alter its guidelines," Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha. "There can be no nuclear commerce till the NSG amends its guidelines," he maintained. The NSG waiver is one of the key elements in operationalising the India-US civilian nuclear deal. Before this, India has to work out a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and there are reports that the draft of this has been worked out. The Left parties that support Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government from outside have repeatedly threatened to pull the plug if it proceeds with the nuclear deal. There has also been talk of an early election, if push comes to shove. But External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee stated last week that the government would not be sacrificed for the sake of the nuclear deal.
Govt Committed to Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Ronen Sen
Mar 13, 2008 (Sify News)
Washington: The government of India is "committed" to the civilian nuclear deal with the US, the top Indian diplomat here has said, maintaining that New Delhi is only bound by the bilateral 123 Agreement that has been worked out by the two countries. Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen's comments come ahead of a crucial UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal on March 17 in the face of an ultimatum by the Government's Communist allies to make its stand clear on the agreement. Sen emphasised that the governments in both the countries will have to go through the "democratic process" before taking decisions and that neither of the parties would want to "lecture" the other on what it should or should not do. "As far as the status of the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement is concerned... I would like to say clearly and categorically that the Government is committed to that," Sen told a large gathering at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies' India Initiative programme of George Washington University.
Atomic Energy Commission Briefed on Safeguards Agreement
Mar 12, 2008 (The Hindu)
New Delhi (PTI): Ahead of the UPA-Left meeting on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the government on wednesday began the process of reviewing the draft India-specific safeguards agreement reached at with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Atomic Energy Commission, headed by Chairman Anil Kakodkar met here this afternoon, where its members were briefed on the safeguards agreement, which is one of the prerequisites to operationalise the deal. The government would be having a series of internal discussions before it gives the draft safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the Left parties at a meeting on March 17. Ravi B Grover, Head of the Strategic Planning Group of the Department of Atomic Energy, who led the Indian delegation for the negotiations with IAEA at Vienna, briefed the AEC on the safeguards agreement. CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat has already indicated that the Left would take two to three months time to go through the draft safeguards agreement. Government circles are saying that the March 17 meeting would be a very short affair as the UPA would only give a copy of the draft agreement to the Left parties for their scrutiny.
Berman Heads Foreign Affairs Panel
Mar 12, 2008 (The Economic Times)
WASHINGTON: US Congressman Howard Berman was formally elected as the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Berman, 66, has been acting head of the committee since former Chairman Tom Lantos died in February. The Democratic caucus yesterday elected Berman to chair the panel, and that vote was later affirmed by the full House. Berman will be a powerful figure in the House Panel, a committee which will take a look at the 123 Agreement if it at all moves up to the hallways of Congress. The 123 Agreement refers to the Henry J Hyde US-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act, passed by the US Congress in December 2006 to allow civil nuclear trade with India. The California law maker is undoubtedly a friend of India but is a staunch opponent of the civilian nuclear initiative on non-proliferation grounds. In his formal statement after his election yesterday, Berman said that he would work very hard to "repair the damage done to America's standing in the world" over the past seven years by the Bush Administration.
Seeking to Move on the Nuke Issue
Mar 11, 2008 (Gulf News)
The last act of the political drama between the Congress-led government in India and the Left parties which support it in power has begun to unfold. Slowly and definitely, the Congress leadership is beginning to attack the Left, some even taking the fight into the Left bastion in Kerala. All the signs are that once the current budget session in Parliament is passed in May, the Congress could make its last stand. After months of frustrated straining at the Left's leash, it seems as if the Congress can hardly wait any longer to announce that it will go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal. Of course, all the current protestations by senior Congress leaders, led by Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, are to the contrary. In the last week itself, Mukherjee has told several journalists that the government will continue to persuade the Left over the need to go ahead with the nuclear deal. Mukherjee has stressed that no minority government can ever undertake any major policy initiative and expect to survive, indicating that if the Congress intends to go through with the deal, it cannot expect to stay in power for another day.
MTS Systems to Plead Guilty to Illegally Exporting Nuclear Technology to India
Mar 11, 2008 (Pioneer Press)
An Eden Prairie company will plead guilty in federal court today to falsifying documents so it could illegally export equipment for use in India's nuclear program, an attorney for the company said. MTS Systems Corp. knew where the devices were going and what they were going to be used for, but left that information off its applications for export licenses, federal authorities alleged in a two-count information filed Tuesday. An information is a written accusation filed with the court by a prosecutor without taking the case to a grand jury, usually when the defendant agrees to plead guilty. The U.S. has tightly controlled exports of such equipment to India since the Asian country conducted five surprise nuclear weapons tests in May 1998. The plea, to be made before U.S. Magistrate Franklin Noel, ends a federal inquiry that has been going on for nearly seven years. Bill Mauzy, a Minneapolis lawyer who represents MTS, said the company will plead to the charges, but declined further comment.
Indian American Seeks Early Action on N-Deal
Mar 11, 2008 (Khabrein)
Washington, March 11 (IANS) An Indian American activist who played a key role in winning support for the India-US civil nuclear deal in Congress wants New Delhi to act fast to save the landmark accord. If the implementing 123 agreement is not ratified by the US Congress before President George W. Bush leaves office next January, it would take many more years to bring India out of its nuclear isolation, said Ashok Mago, chairman of the Dallas-based US-India Forum. Urging Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to go ahead with the agreement - that has been stalled due to opposition by the Indian government's leftist allies - "at the earliest", Mago said that would put "tremendous pressure on the US Congress to ratify it during its lame duck session", before the new US administration takes over. "The only question left is whether the US Congress will be able to accommodate the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government," Mago told IANS during a visit to Washington.
UPA-Left Panel on N-deal Expected to Meet Next Week
Mar 9, 2008 (The Hindu)
New Delhi (PTI): The UPA-Left Committee on the nuclear deal is expected to meet on March 12 or 13, even as the CPI(M) on Sunday sought to delink the issue with elections and said these were different matters. "This issue (nuclear deal) and elections are different issues," party General Secretary Prakash Karat told a press conference when asked whether the Left would withdraw support to the UPA if the government proceeded with the agreement. He also said the Left was in "no hurry" to know about what transpired at the IAEA meeting in Vienna on the India- specific safeguards agreement. "We are not in a hurry. We will see what they (government) say in the committee. ... I cannot presume what is there in the text (of the draft safeguards agreement) as I am not party to the negotiations," Karat said. Meanwhile, sources said the meeting of the UPA-Left Committee was likely to be held on March 12 or 13. Karat's remarks came in the backdrop of his CPI counterpart's letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh threatening to withdraw support if the government went ahead with the nuclear deal.
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