Rice defends deal to share nuclear technology with India

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Congress today to approve an unprecedented US plan to share nuclear technology with India, saying it was “not enabling a larger weapons programme".

Civilian reactors in India would come under international inspection and India’s energy needs would get a boost, Rice said.

But India’s work on nuclear weapons would not be constricted, and Rice’s testimony was received with considerable scepticism.

“I fear this deal could make this world less safe, not more safe,” Senator Russell Feingold, a Democrat, said.

Expressing concern, Barack Obama, a Democrat, noted that eight of India’s 22 nuclear plants would be off-limits to UN inspectors “and they will be producing large amounts of unclear material.”

Still, two senior Democrats, Joseph Biden and John Kerry, signalled they were inclined to vote for the agreement.

“It is not the deal I would have negotiated personally,” Kerry said. “This clearly allows the continued building of weapons.”

But, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate said, “the perfect world is not in our hands.”

Similarly, Biden said: “It comes down to a simple bet we are making, that India appreciates as much as we that the two nations have the potential to be anchors for stability.”

He also said he would probably vote for it.

Biden may seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar mixed praise with concern. He noted India would submit to more international safeguards. But the Indiana Republican with a strong interest in arms control also said the pact “would not prevent India from expanding its nuclear arsenal.”

In the course of nearly three hours of sometimes testy exchanges, Rice clashed with Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, over port calls that Iranian vessels have made on India.

Under questioning, the secretary said Indian authorities had given assurances their country was not training Iranian sailors and soldiers, but she also said “we have made clear we are concerned about their relationship with Iran".

“The Indians say they have some low-level military contacts with Iran,” Rice said.

Boxer declared: “It is an issue of deep concern to me. Your words are a bit hollow.”

In advance of hearings in both the House and Senate, Rep. Tom Lantos, a supporter of the deal, said that Rice’s testimony would put the nuclear cooperation issue “front and centre for the first time.”

The House committee’s senior Democrat, Lantos described as “jarring” the disclosure this week that two Iranian ships have visited ports in India.

Senator George Allen, a Republican, said “this is a good bet,” when benefits to India and the rest of the world are taken into account. The two countries share democratic values and there is a shared sense of security, he said.

Critics say the plan President George Bush agreed to last month with India could dramatically increase India’s nuclear arsenal and weaken efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and Rice maintained that “civil nuclear cooperation with India will not lead to an arms race in South Asia.”

India has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is unlikely to ever do so, she said.

“We are simply seeking to address an untenable situation. … This agreement does bring India into the non-proliferation framework.”

Rice called it a “path-breaking” deal and said it “obviously deserves the support of the US Senate".

The pact, which must be approved by Congress, strengthens US ties with the world’s largest democracy but also upends more than three decades of US law and policy.

Her appearance comes at a time of growing domestic disenchantment with US foreign policy. Uncertainty over the military course of a rising China, unceasing turmoil in Iraq and stalemated Mideast and nuclear diplomacy over Iran and North Korea pose difficulties for Rice, even though her own performance continues to receive rave reviews from politicians.