Canada's Position: No nuclear cooperation with India
India's refusal to sign CTBT worry the world community - potential
conflict and nuclear exchange in South Asia over the Kashmir dispute
Canada has refused to discuss ending a 22-year freeze on nuclear cooperation with India unless it agrees to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty.
The nuclear disarmament issue and India's refusal to accept the treaty are of particular concern to Ottawa. Canada was the first country with the capability to build nuclear weapons but decided against it. However, India used Canadian nuclear technology to build its own explosive device in 1974.
David Van Praagh, an associate professor in the school of journalism at Carleton University, and a former correspondent in India for The Globe and Mail, wrote recently in The Globe and Mail: India derailed the test-ban treaty. Canada helped: "Forty years ago, a well-intentioned but highly naive Canada signed an agreement with India that led to the current blockage of international efforts to control nuclear weapons.
"The agreement on April 28th, 1956, called for the building of India's first nuclear reactor with Canadian technology and aid. It vaguely limited the reactor's use to 'peaceful purposes,' but there were no controls, international or otherwise. The 40-megawatt heavy-water research reactor at Trombay, outside Bombay, went 'critical' (set off its first chain reaction) on July 10th, 1960. India, which last week [August 20th, 1996] vetoed an international treaty banning all nuclear tests, was on its way to becoming a nuclear-weapons power.
"Later, the Indians built a plant adjacent to the experimental reactor to convert spent fuel from it and from much larger Canadian-designed twin power reactors in the western state of Rajasthan into weapons-grade plutonium. On May 18th, 1974, a violent event broke the surface of the Rajasthan desert. India called it a clean 'implosion' of a 'peaceful-nuclear device.' It was a dirty explosion of a warlike nuclear bomb. In a classic case of locking the barn door after the horses have been stolen, Canada cut off nuclear assistance to India.
"...In blocking a comprehensive test ban this year, in refusing to go along with extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty last year, India typically seeks to occupy the moral high ground, above that of the recognised nuclear powers . . .
"... India has 60 to 100, according to conservative estimates, though some experts put the number at above 2,000. All these Hiroshima-type bombs have come off an assembly line that started with Canada's gift to India.
"What's more, India has designed a crude hydrogen bomb; and growth in the number of delivery vehicles for its secret nuclear arsenal is steady . . .
"Canadian officials share a growing worldwide worry that a nuclear exchange is more likely in South Asia - the Subcontinent - than in any other part of the world. The danger is unlikely to disappear while troops and police of predominantly Hindu India continue to repress separatists in Kashmir, a Muslim majority state disputed with Pakistan, instead of allowing promised self-determination," The Globe and Mail, August 30th, 1996.
At present, forty-four countries have nuclear power reactors and thus the potential to convert radioactive material into weapons, however, only five countries have openly acknowledged that they possess nuclear-arsenal.
The U. S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton addressing 51st. session of the General Assembly, September 24th, 1996, and immediately after singing the CTBT, said the treaty would create an international norm against nuclear testing even before it formally entered into force.
Mr. Clinton said, "some have complained that it does not mandate total disarmament." I would say to them "do not forsake the benefits of this achievement by ignoring the tremendous progress we have already made in disarmament. Today there are no Russian missiles pointed at the U. S. and no American missiles pointed at Russia." He then asked all countries of the world to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), declaring that it points towards "a century in which the risks of nuclear weapons can be further reduced."
The Secretary-General, Dr. Boutros Boutros Ghali, while opening the treaty for signature described it as a milestone in making the world safer for generations to come. "We are privileged today to witness a turning point in the history of efforts towards nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation."
The treaty was endorsed by the General Assembly earlier in September after the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva failed to arrive at a consensus.
The AFP reports from New Delhi: India, like Pakistan a "threshold" nuclear state believed to have the ability to build nuclear weapons, argued that the treaty consolidated the dominance of existing nuclear powers, warning India would retain the nuclear option in case it was threatened.
To the outside world, India's stormy relationship with Pakistan, centred around the disputed Kashmir region, has often seemed more potentially explosive.
The two nations, with three wars behind them since independence from British colonial rule in 1947, regularly trade insults over the Kashmir, over terrorist attacks, spying and ** inevitably ** nuclear weapons.
The AFP reports from Islamabad: Pakistan has achieved diplomatic dividends while India stands isolated with the adoption of a global nuclear test ban treaty, officials sources said here Wednesday [September 11th].
"We have protected our interests and Pakistan is not being targeted today by anybody," an official observed. "We are looking good in the eyes of the world community."
The position taken by India at the UN is further proof of its nuclear aims, he said.
The English*language daily The News said Wednesday [September 11th]: "It is plain hypocrisy that India is piling up tactical and strategic nuclear weapons of a wide variety and at the same time preaching the virtues of global nuclear disarmament.
"India now looks to be the black sheep," the newspaper said in an editorial. But it cautioned Pakistan "cannot afford to sit back and relax," stressing there was a "lot of margin" for India to manoeuvre in the next three
years in which the treaty will "hang in the air."
"India, Canada to resume N-talks: the big chill between India and Canada on the nuclear issue appears to have thawed. Following the recent visit to Canada by [India's] External Affairs Minister I. K. Gujral, India and Canada have decided to resume co-operation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Speaking to media persons, Gujral said a senior Canadian ex-minister would be visiting India shortly, for discussions to finesse the details and to identify areas where nuclear technology could be applied," The Indian Express, October 16th.
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mr. John Bell, speaking to Mr. Mushtaq A. Jeelani, executive director of the Kashmiri-Canadian Council (KCC), said that "Canada would not engage in any kind of nuclear co-operation with India, unless India agrees to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." Reacting over Gujral's statement to the media in New Delhi, "Indian minister can say what he wants to say," Bell said. "If India agrees to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, then maybe that would open the door for discussion."