India: atomic power despite condemnation of tests

By Can Merey Oct 10, 2006, 14:42 GMT

New Delhi - India and Pakistan paid little heed to the international protest that greeted their atom bomb tests in May 1998. The countries faced a storm of outrage similar to the one now hitting North Korea, but neither country suffered lasting damage.

After the tests on May 11 and 13 in India, and on May 28 and 30 in Pakistan, economic sanctions were imposed but were soon lifted again.

The United States lifted its embargo little more than six months later and also opened the way for the two countries to secure international loans.

Stubbornly sitting out the protests has paid off in the case of India in particular.

The five nuclear weapons states - the US, Russia, China, France and Britain - denied India and Pakistan entry to their exclusive club within the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

They decided not to recognize the South Asian neighbours as official nuclear powers, which have special rights under the NPT.

Neither India nor Pakistan has yet ratified the NPT, and international efforts to get them to sign up to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty have also been unsuccessful.

Even if the economic sanctions were soon lifted, the global boycott on nuclear materials that applies also to civilian uses has been painful for both countries.

Officially no country may provide nuclear technology to either India or Pakistan.

Both have growing economies and thus rising energy needs, and both are banking on nuclear power to provide electricity.

The US, which placed an embargo on providing nuclear technology and materials to India after its first test in 1974, now wants to end the boycott.

During the visit of President George W Bush to New Delhi in March, Washington and New Delhi signed the US-India Civilian Nuclear Cooperation treaty that provides for cooperation in the use of civilian nuclear power.

This still has to be ratified by the US Senate, but should this occur, other countries are waiting in line to participate in the huge contracts in India that are expected to ensue.

Through the treaty, Bush effectively brought India in from the nuclear cold and granted the country de facto recognition as a legitimate nuclear power.

No provision is made in the treaty for India to join the NPT.

Critics say that the US-Indian treaty undermines the NPT, but the US administration argues that India's nuclear programme will be subject to greater international control with the bilateral treaty even without the NPT.

Under the cooperation treaty, India has agreed to permit international inspection in 14 of its 22 rectors.

Bush also noted that India had shown itself a reliable partner in the past in how it dealt responsibly with nuclear technology.

The US has refused to enter into nuclear cooperation with Pakistan - Islamabad is seen as anything but responsible.

In 2003 it became known that the father of Pakistan's bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had illegally provided other countries with nuclear technology.

According to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, this had occurred without the knowledge of the government.

'He gave them diagrams for centrifuges, he gave them parts for centrifuges and he gave them centrifuges,' Musharraf said in a recent interview.

One of those countries with which Khan carried on his illicit business was North Korea.