Clinton’s India Nuclear Landmine

Clinton’s India Nuclear Landmine

from The Diplomat by Rajeev Sharma

There was nothing much for India to cheer about as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited New Delhi this week for the second Indo-US Strategic Dialogue with her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna. Indian concerns about the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group’s recent hardening of Enrichment and Reprocessing technology transfer terms remained unaddressed, while Clinton instead conveyed Washington’s annoyance over Indian nuclear liability laws, which make it possible to seek compensation from suppliers, and asked the UPA government to tweak them further to conform with international liability norms. She also asked India to negotiate with the International Atomic Energy Agency on the legislation, even though there’s no international legal requirement to do so. Finally, she spoke of some ‘remaining issues’ that need to be tackled to enable full implementation of the Indo-US civilian nuclear energy cooperation agreement. What Clinton didn’t say directly, but what she likely meant, was that unless India dilutes its nuclear liability ... Read More...