India-USA Nuclear Deal

Over here in India for the past nine months, one of the major stories continually in the news has been the nuclear agreement between India and the USA, which was first put to the table two years ago. Since then, both countries have been negotiating the agreement, which still has to be approved by both the US Congress and Indian parliament.

From my reading of both the NY Times and Seattle Times online, I feel like this hasn't had a lot of air time back home. It's on the front page of the newspapers here at least a couple days a week.

(I had to catch a pigeon with a pot in the kitchen the other day after work. No pigeons were hurt before or after this photo was taken, but if you look close you can see the end bits of my pigeon friend's tail by the pot handle.)

The basis for this agreement is that the USA will supply India with nuclear material to increase their civilian energy supply. One of the many "catches" is that India has not signed the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty, not to mention it is currently against US law for the US to provide nuclear material to a country that hasn't signed the treaty. Further, it is a nuclear country, having tested a nuclear bomb in 1974.

(The group of friends that I play ultimate frisbee with on Saturdays)


There are all kinds of potential repercussions to this deal going through. A couple are that India will have access to a much larger (and consistent) energy supply for its growing (and gas guzzling) population. A second is that this deal requires the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to make a number of exceptions for India, which would set a major presedent. Evidence of this is that Pakistan (India's neighbor and also a nuclear state) has already stated that if the agreement is approved, they will ask for the exact same exceptions.

To better understand this very complex, yet extremely important international agreement I have provided links to a couple of good articles that see the agreement from different angles.

The Economist: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9687395

Newsweek: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20438305/site/newsweek/page/0/

Happy reading :)