By Ahsan Waheed
First the US undermined the NPT and made the CTBT largely irrelevant. Now the 45 nation NSG( Nuclear Suppliers Group) under US pressure has voted itself into oblivion by making an exception for nuclear trade with India. The NSG was created in 1974 as direct response to India’s nuclear test that same year which started the proliferation process in 1974. India completed the process in 1998 with nuclear tests forcing Pakistan to respond with tests of its own. India is not a signatory to the NPT or CTBT and its test in 1974 was a blatant misuse of civilian nuclear technology. India drives the nuclear weapons race in the sub-continent by continuing to upgrade capabilities and fissile material production.
Pakistan’s pleas for a restraint regime have never been reciprocated by India. India cites extra regional security concerns for its ongoing nuclear weapons program. If its program is ongoing, and it is, then the NSG has erred by approving nuclear trade with India without any conditions whatsoever. India is not lily white and there is no doubt that India’s nuclear weapons program will expand as it gets fuel for its reactors and channels its own uranium to its unsafeguarded military program. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to understand this.
The US- India Nuclear Trade Agreement is flawed. It will escalate the nuclear weapons race in the sub-continent. A boost in the Indian nuclear weapons program plus India’s conventional weapons superiority over Pakistan plus access to US weapons and US partnership in security cannot possible have an other than destabilizing effect in the region. Other states will act to compensate through every means possible.
Within India there is a clamor for retaining the right to test nuclear weapons. India has shown a marked propensity to use force over the years. The atrocities in Kashmir being committed right now by its brutalized military are there for all to see. It is the same in its North Eastern states.
Congress is unlikely to anything considering the business interests involved in nuclear trade. The least that should be done is to force India to sign the CTBT and halt fissile material production before the Agreement takes effect. This is not an impossible task. The domestic uproar in India will expose its design and intentions to the world.