The Hindu : National : It will be difficult to conduct nuclear test: Brajesh

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Thursday, Aug 09, 2007
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It will be difficult to conduct nuclear test: Brajesh

Says there will be pressure in matters of foreign policy

New Delhi: The nuclear agreement will make it difficult for India to carry out an atomic test in case the need arose, as economic costs would be “far greater” than in the past, the former National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra, has said.

The 123 agreement to operationalise the nuclear deal would also “stymie” India’s right to reprocess the fuel from the United States, he told Karan Thapar on the India Tonight programme telecast on CNBC.

On concerns of independent conduct of foreign policy, he said the pressure on the Government would grow. America, being a more powerful and more important party, would come “every other day” asking for India’s support, he said. “Suppose you have an Iraq type of situation....is the government of India....whether it is today’s government or tomorrow’s government....whether it is capable of saying no, we cannot do this... we do not agree with you and we are going to continue with our cooperation with Iraq,” he said. The agreement also leaves critical issues such as the right to build fuel reserves, the right to reprocess and access to sensitive technologies for the pact with the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Mr. Mishra contended.

“Down the years, if you are faced with a national security situation that should lead you to test... the economic costs... would be far greater at that point of time than what was in the past.”

Any government at that time would be faced with a dilemma of whether to go ahead and deal with strategic concerns and sacrifice all that accrued from the deal. — PTI

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