The United States has agreed to help India secure fuel for its reactors, even if it conducts another atomic test, the Washington Times reported Thursday.
The Bush administration made the major concession in closed-door talks with visiting Indian officials last week in an attempt to save its civilian nuclear-energy deal with India, the newspaper quoted diplomats and knowledgeable nonproliferation experts as saying.
Sources familiar with the new proposal, negotiated under pressure from India, which does not want its hands tied in its nuclear rivalry with neighboring Pakistan, said the United States offered to "consider the circumstances" before cutting off cooperation after any nuclear test.
Moreover, Washington offered to help New Delhi secure alternative sources of nuclear fuel in the event of a U.S. cutoff.
"The United States would join India in seeking a fuel-supply agreement with the IAEA," said one source with knowledge of the proposal, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, Austria.
"If there were interruption, U.S. and India will convene a group of friendly supplier countries, such as Britain and Russia, to restore the supply," the unidentified source said.
"We would also support Indian efforts to create a strategic reserve to supply Indian reactors over their lifetime with fuel."
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, said last year's legislation stipulated that "the United States should not provide India with a multi-year fuel supply that could be used to carry it through the suspension of international supplies due to resumption of nuclear testing."
"In other words," he said, "the administration is saying that, if the U.S. felt compelled to cut off cooperation because India violated the agreement, we'll help others circumvent our policies to supply India with fuel."
An unidentified Indian official close to the negotiations was quoted as saying that Washington had also reversed its position by agreeing to let India reprocess spent nuclear fuel.
"This is a very significant milestone, but it is not the end of the road," the official said. "We are still keeping our fingers crossed."
Christopher Griffin, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said the Bush administration's concessions are not a "real surprise, because its interest is not as much in nonproliferation as in removing the barrier to strategic cooperation with India on a broader agenda."
