The United States will not sell sensitive nuclear technologies to India and will immediately terminate nuclear trade if New Delhi conducts a nuclear test, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
In a secret letter to Congress which was made public by Howard L. Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the State Department said that the U.S. government would not assist India in the design, construction or operation of sensitive nuclear technologies even though the Hyde Act allows transfers of such technology under certain circumstances.
The U.S. government had no plans to seek to amend the civil nuclear deal with India to allow sensitive transfers, the letter said.
But Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his aides have insisted that the deal would not constrain the country's right to nuclear tests and would provide an uninterrupted supply of fuel to India's nuclear reactors.
"The agreement does not in any way affect India's right to undertake a future nuclear test, if it is necessary," Singh told the Indian parliament in August 2007.
The United States and India reached an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation in March 2006, under which India will get access to U.S. civil nuclear technology on condition that the country separates nuclear facilities for civilian and military use and opens its nuclear facilities for inspection.
The nuclear deal, considered a key part of U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy legacy, is designed to solidify Washington's relationship with a fast-emerging economic power. However, the nuclear deal has met with strong opposition in both India and the United States.
If the U.S. Congress gives the deal final approval, India will be able to engage in civil nuclear trade with the United States even though it has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
While the Indian government called its civil nuclear cooperation deal with Washington a "landmark agreement," opponents in the Indian parliament believed that the nuclear agreement would compromise New Delhi's military program and ally it more closely with the United States.
Source:Xinhua
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