NEW DELHI, JULY 21:In a significant departure from all 123 agreements that the US has signed with other countries, India has extracted an explicit commitment in its bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement, which was finalised in Washington yesterday, that the US will “not hinder” the growth of India’s strategic weapons programme.
India had pushed for including this commitment specifically to address concerns emerging from the Hyde Act that contains references in its non-binding portions allowing the US government to make efforts to “freeze” and “roll back” India’s weapons programme.
These references had drawn criticism from the Left, BJP and former nuclear scientists even though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had made it clear in his August 17 speech last year that IndiaÂ’s weapons programme will remain untouched. |