This is an update to my last post about the US-India nuclear deal and how it essentially just killed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by unilaterially carving out an "exception" for India. Despite the fact that India is non-signatory, and despite the fact that the NPT prohibits the US from sharing nuclear technology with non-signatories such as India, India now can have the same NPT benefits as other countries that have signed the treaty, but while keeping its nuclear weapons too.
The irony is that under this deal, India will be treated better than both nuclear-weapon states and nonnuclear weapon states. Nuclear-weapon states are prohibited by Article 1 of the NPT to assist any nonnuclear weapon state to acquire a nuclear weapon. However, since India has not signed the NPT, this prohibition does not apply to India. Furthermore, nuclear weapon states have stopped producing fissile material for nuclear weapons, something that India plainly states it has no intention of giving up.
And they say Iran is a threat to non-proliferation!
Anyway, apparently the Iranian delegation to the IAEA spoke in favor of India anyway but made a point of mentioning the discriminatory nature of the US position with respect to Iran in comparison with India. (Interesting how you have to go to a Thai newspaper source to get this info.)
This deal is now a precendent for other countries to carve out their own "exceptions" to the NPT. Pakistan has already decided to treat it as such:
"There should be no preferential treatment, there should be no discrimination. And if they want to give civilian nuclear status to India, we would also expect the same for Pakistan too.
Wonderful. Thanks, Bush!
What happens next?
Though the international body has approved the safeguard but India has still a long way to go. Now the big question, is that, how much 'safe' the path will be ahead when it will approach the [Nuclear Suppliers Group] as its members are bound to supply uranium only to a country which has signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. In that situation, there would only be two choices left - either the NSG has to amend its constitution or India would have to sign the NPT, which it once declared 'discriminatory in nature'.
The nuclear deal is expected to reach the US Congress by September and voting on the deal will be held in the December session of the House.
According to the AP, the Nuclear Suppliers Group appears willing to consider a "waiver" for India, in part due to lobbying from Washington. So actually, there are third and fourth option: the NSG violates its constitution by granting such a waiver for India, OR India could to sign the NPT but as a nuclear-weapons state like the US, China, Russia, France and the UK -- despite the fact that under the NPT, no new nuclear powers are supposed to be recognized (in fact the NPT requires existing nuclear powers are supposed to disarm -- fat chance that'll ever happen.)
In either case, the NPT will be officially dead. The US will have violated every single element of the NPT: refused to disarm, shared nuke technology with non-signatories, and discriminated against signatories such as Iran.
Now watch Israel seek the same official nuclear recognition as India too.
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