Russia defies G8 with Indian nuclear deal
By Suzanne Goldenberg in New Delhi
Tuesday June 23, 1998
India gave thanks for an old friend yesterday after Russia defied international outrage at New Delhi's nuclear test explosions and agreed to supply it with two reactors.
The deal, which was sealed on Sunday, came only 10 days after Russia and the other G8 leading industrialised nations agreed at their summit in Birmingham not to export technology that could be used in the weapons programmes of India or Pakistan.
It makes Russia the first foreign supplier of nuclear technology to India for more than 20 years. The United States and Canada, which built India's earliest nuclear reactors in the 1960s, ended co-operation after New Delhi's first test explosion in 1974.
"India is delighted at this move because it is a signal of what the Indian government would like to portray, and that is, 'we are not alone in the world any more'," one diplomat said.
New Delhi-based diplomats from the other G8 nations were uncertain whether the deal, valued at about œ2 billion in 1995, was a technical breach of sanctions.
So far, there has been relatively muted international reaction to the visit to India at the weekend of Russia's atomic energy minister, Yevgeny Adamov. But the diplomats argued that the supply of the two reactors to a power station at Kudankulam, in southern Tamil Nadu state, was contrary to the spirit of the G8 summit resolution condemning last month's nuclear tests by India and Pakistan.
"The timing raises all kinds of questions, given all the attention on nuclear issues," another diplomat said. However, Russia, which has also supplied reactors to Iran, has been anxious to sell its technology abroad.
Indian officials were openly delighted yesterday. They insisted that the deal was not covered by sanctions because it was originally agreed in 1988, and because the power station would be subject to International Atomic Energy Association safeguards. The officials also believed it was not covered by more stringent "full scope" safeguards agreed in 1992.
V. Ashok, a spokesman for India's Atomic Energy Commission, said: "This deal predates sanctions, or any other commitment that Russia might have chosen to make afterwards. It just so happens that the finalisation took a great deal of time because the Soviet Union collapsed, and an entirely new finance package had to be worked out."
But the United States yesterday condemned Russia's decision to supply India. "This is not good news," said the state department spokesman, James Rubin. "It's the wrong message at the wrong time, and we are going to urge the Russians to reconsider."
"Even before India's latest test we urged Russia not to proceed with the sale as it is not consistent with Russia's obligations as a member of the nuclear suppliers' group not to sell reactors to countries without 'full scope' safeguards."
The sale harmed international efforts "to get India to understand that nuclear testing does not bring rewards", he added.
The deal also signals a resumption of co-operation between New Delhi and Moscow, India's main arms supplier before the Soviet Union collapsed.
Last week a high-ranking Indian military delegation was in Russia looking at a range of defence equipment, including fighter planes and air defence systems. |
