Varinder Kour
Since India’s independence, the Indo-US relations have moved in a zigzag manner. It is in 21st century the pace of bilateral relations picked up. From 2000-2015 India have hosted four visits of US presidents and signed many important deals. The Indo-US civil nuclear deal is one of them. A plan for India-United States Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative (CNCI) was announced by the US President George W Bush and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2005. It was a significant development in the Indo-US bilateral relations taking into account their frozen nuclear trade after India’s first nuclear test in 1974. Moreover, it was also a very important step for India as in order to carry on its development process and fulfill energy deficiency. The plan opened up the door for India’s nuclear trade with US and other countries which were blocked since 1974. By the announcement of this plan India got a new lease of life to carry on its nuclear energy programme and reset its nuclear power plants. It also ended India’s nuclear apartheid.
Over the last seven year, the US not only lifted these sanctions but also acknowledged India’s nuclear weapons status. In July 2005, it formally recognized India to be ‘a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology’. In 2007, the bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement was finalized. On 28 September, 2008, the US House of Representatives passed the bill. The US Senate also approved the civilian nuclear agreement allowing India to purchase nuclear fuel and technology from the US. The US President George W Bush signed the legislation to enact the Indo-US civilian nuclear energy cooperation pact in October 2008, marking an end to more than three years of tumultuous negotiations between the two sides, it could only be operationalized after three key requirements were met setting up of a dedicated reprocessing facility under IAEA safeguards, declaration by India on non-proliferation and enactment of the liability law. On 8 October 2008, the US President George W Bush, signed the legislation on the Indo-US nuclear deal, approved by the US Congress, into law, now called the United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Non-Proliferation Enhancement Act.
On 10th October, 2008, the agreement was signed by the then Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his counterpart then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It is also known as the Indo-United States Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. It is covered under section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act, 1954 and it is also known as 123 Agreement. This section of the US Act prohibits the US from entering into nuclear cooperation agreement with those countries, which have not signed the NPT or the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Indo-US reached an agreement on the reprocessing of US obligated nuclear material in March 2010, allowing India to reprocess spent nuclear fuel supplied by the US to its own reprocessing plants under the IAEA safeguards. The Obama administration completed the pending agreement on arrangements and procedures for the reprocessing of spent fuel from the reactors to be supplied by the US. This was important because of the conditionality in the nuclear pact that India not divert US-supplied nuclear fuel to its military programme. The challenge for India was to get a nuclear liability law in place that will enable investors to come after entering into civilian nuclear energy cooperation pacts with a range of countries, from the US, Britain and France to Argentina, Namibia, and Russia.
In August 2010, Indian Parliament passed the nuclear liability bill which caused a rift with the US nuclear suppliers. The US companies are seeking greater protections from liabilities in the event of a nuclear disaster. However, India has decided to move ahead with nuclear power to support its growing energy needs and reduce import of oil and coal. It is being done when there are rising global concerns about nuclear energy since Fukushima disaster in Japan. The two countries have shown a marked improvement in the bilateral trade and diplomatic engagement amidst the concern over the actualization of nuclear agreement.
In November 2010, during the visit of US President Obama to India, the two Governments announced completion of all steps to begin implementation of the Civil Nuclear Agreement. In September 2013, US nuclear companies (Westinghouse and GE) are in consultations with NPCIL to commence commercial cooperation in this area. NPCIL and Westinghouse signed a “pre-liminary contract” for a nuclear power project in Gujarat. In September 2014, during the visit of Prime Minister Modi’s to the US, the two sides set up a Contact Group for advancing the full and timely implementation of the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, and to resolve pending issues.
On January 25, India and the US broke the seven-year-old logjam in operationalising their landmark civil nuclear deal, resolving hurdles pertaining to the liability of suppliers of nuclear reactors in the event of an accident and the tracking of fuel supplied by America. Under the nuclear liability law, India is going to create an insurance pool of Rs 1500 crore which will take care of the supplier’s liability. This pool will be created by General Insurance Corporation and four other insurers who will put in Rs 750 crore while operators and suppliers will provide the remaining Rs 750 crore. As of now the deal has been finalized and India reaps the benefits of it. But India has to wait till time it finally gets fuel supply and technology transfer. The latest visit of President Obama to India, the PM Modi said, “I am pleased that six years after we signed our bilateral agreement, we are moving towards commercial cooperation, consistent with our laws and international legal obligations”. President Obama, in turn, said “we achieved a breakthrough understanding on two issues that were holding up our ability to advance our civil nuclear cooperation and we were committed to moving towards full implementation”.
(The author is a PhD Scholar, Department of Strategic and Regional Studies, University of Jammu)
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