The Hindu : Front Page : ‘India-U.S. deal a major hurdle’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 27, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

‘India-U.S. deal a major hurdle’

United Nations: Australia’s non-proliferation envoy Gareth Evans has slammed the India-United States nuclear deal, saying it is a major hurdle to the goal of a nuclear-free world.

“Everybody knows that from India’s point of view it was a brilliant success but from the point of view of non-proliferation objectives it wasn’t as helpful as it could have been,” Mr. Evans told journalists here.

Mr. Evans, who is the co-chair of the International Commission for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament — a joint initiative of the governments of Japan and Australia, was speaking after presenting a report, ‘Eliminating Nuclear Threats: A Practical Agenda for Global Policymakers.’

One of the contributors for the report is the former National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra.

Mr. Evans said the commitments made by the Indian government were insufficient and set a bad precedent.

“It was a very bad deal from the point of view of non-proliferation and the kinds of principles that most of us are committed to simply because it did not demand enough of the Indian government in terms of issues such as non-production of fissile material or even non resumption of testing,” Mr. Evans said.

Nuclear war

A nuclear war between India, Pakistan could cause severe “climate cooling” and have a devastating impact on agriculture worldwide, said the commission report.

“Just a limited regional nuclear exchange, for example between India and Pakistan, with each side attacking the other’s major cities with 50 low-yield Hiroshima-sized weapons, will throw up major concentrations of soot into the stratosphere, which would remain there for long enough to cause unprecedented climate cooling worldwide, with major disruptive effects on global agriculture,” the report said.— PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page