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International Conference
The Indo-US Nuclear Deal
10-11 March, 2007 Mumbai
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Dear Friends,
Please find attached herewith
the Resolution adopted, along with a short report on, at an
“International Seminar” held in Mumbai, India on 10-11 March on the
Indo-US nuclear deal, which is self explanatory.
The seminar was held at the initiative of the Afro-Asian Peoples’
Solidarity Organization headquartered in Cairo in collaboration with the
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India and a number
of other local/international organizations (the list is included in the
short report). Friends of the Earth Australia is a prominent
international organization participating. The international
organizations endorsing the seminar include, amongst others, the Mayors
for Peace.
The demands raised are as under:
Quote:
The government of India, given the grave multifaceted negative
implications of this ongoing deal, must forthwith withdraw from all
further negotiations with the US in this regard.
It must strive to regain its old prestige and influence, both moral and
political, by opting to again play a meaningful leading role in the
Non-Aligned Movement and other international alliances geared against
militarism and oriented towards a nuclear weapons free South Asia and
the world.
The government of India is further urged to make global abolition of
nuclear weapons its diplomatic priority and take up and pursue the issue
vigorously with the NAM, UNGA and other international fora.
Unquote:
A copy of the resolution and report in plain text is also reproduced
below.
Hope, given the highly informed inputs from a number of Indian and
international experts and activists of great acclaim, you will give your
kind consideration to the points made in the Resolution .
N.B. If you would like to endorse the list of NGOs, simply reply to
this e-mail with Name of Organization, and country before April 25, 2007
Thanking you.
Yours sincerely
Sukla Sen
Nouri Abdul Razzak Hussain
CNDP, Mumbai
Secretary-General
Resolution
The International Seminar on
“Indo-US Nuclear 'Deal' - India, South Asia, NAM and the Global Order”
held in Mumbai, on March 10-11 was organized by a number of local
organizations, as per
the attached list ‘A’, and endorsed/participated by the international
organizations, as per the attached list ‘B’.
After due and in-depth deliberations in which a number of international
and national experts and activists took part, the Seminar has resolved
as under:
I. What the Deal Is All About?
The content of the ‘Deal’, which is currently being negotiated between
India and the US, was first laid out the joint statement issued by the
Indian Prime minister and the US President on July 18 2005 from
Washington DC and then further reiterated on March 2 2006 in another
joint statement by them issued from New Delhi incorporating the major
elements of agreements between the countries reached till then. The
signing of the Henry Hyde Act on December 18 2006, after protracted and
nerve-wracking deliberations in the US Congress, by the US President
towards amending its own Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to make the ‘Deal’
possible is a major step forward towards bringing the ‘Deal’ into force.
The ‘Deal’, in its essence, is meant to enable India, a non-signatory to
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), henceforth to have
‘civilian’ nuclear trade – in terms of nuclear fuel, technology, plants,
spares etc., with the US, and also other nations so desirous, by making
a unique exception in case of India. India in return will have to
designate, at its own options, its nuclear reactors into two categories
– ‘civilian’ (for power production) and ‘strategic’ (for Bomb making),
and ensure separation between the two. The ‘civilian’ reactors/plants
only will be opened up for international inspection by the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The nuclear trade will accordingly be
limited to the ‘civilian’ reactors only. In case of the ‘strategic’
ones, there will be neither any inspection nor any trade.
II. When and How the ‘Deal’ Comes into Operation?
In order to bring the ‘Deal’ into force, India will have to further
finalise the “123 agreement” with the US, laying down the specific scope
and terms of cooperation and codifying the modes of separation between
the ‘civilian’ and ‘strategic’ plants - and perhaps diluting some of the
conditions incorporated in the Henry Hyde Act at the instance of the US
Congress to which India is objecting; and conclude a treaty with the
IAEA on the specific scope and terms of inspection.
Then the proposal will go to the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group so
that it unanimously amends its rules, which as of now prohibits nuclear
trade with India – being a non-signatory to the NPT, to accommodate the
above two agreements reached between India, on the one hand, and the US
and the IAEA on the other.
On succeeding in obtaining a green signal from the NSG, the whole
package will go back to the two houses of the US Congress, which stands
reconfigured since, for its final nod.
In the event of obtaining such, the US President would put his signature
and the ‘Deal’ will eventually come into operation.
The Indian government, unlike its US counterpart, is not obligated to
obtain any parliamentary approval.
III. Why the ‘Deal’ Must Be Opposed?
The ‘Deal’ as and when, and if at all, comes through will grievously
undermine the current global regime of nuclear non-proliferation, as it
is meant to make a unique exception in case India, in gross violation of
the underlying principles of the NPT, and thereby also the prospects of
global nuclear disarmament. The fact that Pakistan has been brusquely
refused a similar deal by the US in spite of persistent clamouring and
Iran is being demonstratively coerced to desist from developing its own
nuclear fuel cycle technology, integral to nuclear power production
allowed and encouraged under the Article IV of the NPT, further brings
out graphically the abominable discriminatory nature of the ‘Deal’.
Moreover, the lesson that one would tend to learn is that if one can
weather the initial storms of international censures after breaking the
non-proliferation taboo, things would normalise in a while. One may even
get rewarded in the process. This is sure to trigger off stepped up
vertical and horizontal proliferations.
Moreover, by enabling India to import fuel, natural or enriched uranium,
from abroad, the ‘Deal’ would make it possible for India to use the
indigenously produced uranium exclusively for Bomb-making. This possible
escalation in its fissile material production capacity is, in all
likelihood, push Pakistan further to nuclearise even at a great cost,
and thereby aggravate tensions and accelerate arms race in the region
with spine-chilling consequences.
It’d also further cement the growing (unequal) strategic ties between
the US and India and thereby would add momentum to the US project for
unfettered global dominance and Indian craze to emerge as a global power
basking in the reflected glory of the global headman. It’d just not only
undermine India’s position as a founding and leading member of the NAM,
it’d also pose a very serious challenge to the NAM and its objectives in
terms of radically raised level of US domination on the global scene.
India’s rather meek submission to highly deplorable and dangerous
threats issued and postures adopted by the Bush regime in relation to
Iran and its nuclear programme instead of trying to find a just and fair
solution in terms of having a Weapons of Mass Destruction free
Middle-East including Israel is a clear and extremely worrisome pointer.
India’s keenness to join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI)
initiated by the US to interdict any vessel in international waters
suspected of carrying (unauthorised!) nuclear materials, in gross
violation of all international laws and also the Ballistic Missile
Defence (BMD) programme of the US are another two highly disturbing
indicators.
India’s growing closeness with Israel, the frontline state of the US in
the Middle East, would also pick up further pace in the process.
This ‘Deal’ would obviously distort India's energy options by diverting
scarce resources to developments of resource-guzzling, intrinsically
hazardous and potentially catastrophic, nuclear power at the cost of
ecologically benign renewable sources of energy.
This would, furthermore, provide a strong boost to the nuclear industry
worldwide, particularly the potential suppliers from the US. And that’s
precisely why the business lobby in the US is working overtime to get
the ‘Deal’ clinched.
The recent visit by the Russian President Vladimir Putin to India as the
guest of honour at the Republic Day event and his public commitment to
supply additional nuclear reactors to India and work for the safe
passage of the 'Deal' through the NSG underscores the convergence of
interests of the nuclear power lobbies worldwide as regards the 'Deal'
and the new market that it is promising to open up.
IV. We Demand
The government of India, given the grave multifaceted negative
implications of this ongoing deal, must forthwith withdraw from all
further negotiations with the US in this regard.
It must strive to regain its old prestige and influence, both moral and
political, by opting to again play a meaningful leading role in the
Non-Aligned Movement and other international alliances geared against
imperialism, militarism and oriented towards a nuclear weapons free
South Asia and the world.
The government of India is further urged to make global abolition of
nuclear weapons its diplomatic priority and take up and pursue the issue
vigorously with the NAM, UNGA and other international fora.
V.
The Seminar also decides to send a copy of this Resolution to the Prime
Minister of India, the Chairperson of the ruling UPA – Mrs Sonia Gandhi,
the incumbent chair of the NAM – the Cuban government, and also the
United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon.
It also urges the members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to turn down
the proposal to amend its rule to accommodate the ‘Deal’, as and when it
come sup for discussions.
'A'
Indian Organisers:
Akshara
Bombay Urban Industrial League for Development (BUILD)
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS)
Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA)
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP)
Documentation & Research Training Centre (DRTC)
Forum for Justice & Peace (FJP)
Indian Institute for Peace, Disarmament &
Environmental Protection
Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD)
Initiative India
Institute Community Organization & Research (ICOR)
Labour Education and Research Network (LEARN)
National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM)
Pakistan India Peoples' Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD)
Peace Mummbai
People's Media Initiative (PMI)
Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK)
Wisdom Foundation
Women's Centre
Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action(YUVA))
'B'
International Organisations Endorsing:
Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Organisation
Friends of the Earth Australia
Mayors for Peace
South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE)
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), Canada
Event Details
10.3.2007 (SATURDAY)
10 00-11 00: Registration & Inauguration.
Welcome Speech: Admiral (Rtd.) L Ramdas (PIPFPD/CNDP).
11 00-14 00: 1st Plenary: 'Indo-US Nuke Deal: India, Non-Aligned
Movement and the Emerging Global Order'.
Speakers: Achin Vanaik (CNDP), A.A.M Marleen PC (Secretary-General,
AAPSO, Sri Lanka), Ashim Roy (General Secretary, NTUI), Ms. Hamsa Abd
El-Hamid (International Secretariat, AAPSO, Cairo).
Chair: Fr. Allwyn D'Silva (FJP/ICOR).
15 00-18 00: 2nd Plenary: 'Indo-US Nuke Deal: Its Impacts on Global and
Regional Nuclear Arms Race'.
Speakers: John Hallam (Friends of the Earth, Australia), E.A.Vidyasekera
(AAPSO Secretariat Coordinator), Hari Sharma (President, SANSAD, Canada)
- speech read out in absentia, Praful Bidwai (CNDP).
Chair: Vijay Darp (PIPFPD).
March 11 (SUNDAY)
10 00-13 00: 3rd Plenary: 'Indo-US Nuke Deal: Its Impacts on Global and
Regional Energy Options'.
Speakers: Surendra Gadekar (CNDP/Anumukti), V T Padmanabhan (Researcher
on radiation effects on human heath), M V Ramana (CNDP).
Chair: Leslie Rodrigues (VAK).
14 00-18 00: 4th Plenary:
Documentary film by K P Sasi on effects of radiation (from thorium) on
human health.
Strategy Session and Adoption of Resolution.
Speakers: Theodore Orlin (President, International Human Rights
Education Consortium, USA), Sandeep Pandey (NAPM/CNDP), Eric Toussaint
(CADTM, Belgium) and others.
Chair: Sukla Sen (CNDP).
Discussion on Film
Speaker: V T Padmanabhan.
Chair: Sushovan Dhar (VAK).
Thanksgiving
March 12 (Monday)
03 30 – 04 30:
Press Conference |
