India-US nuke deal signed without ground work, says Ex-US Senator

The landmark India-US civil nuclear deal was “dead at the very beginning” as it was signed without ground work, a former top Republican Senator has alleged, describing the agreement as more of an “arms deal” for American defence manufacturing companies.

Former Senator Larry Pressler, who has served as chairman of the US Senate’s Arms Control Subcommittee, told a Washington audience that the deal was muchpraised “but there is no chance of it being implemented as the liability issues have not been addressed and it has not been worked through.” He said that the India-US civil nuclear deal “was dead at the very beginning.”

Pressler said that there was “no groundwork done” in India or the US on the civil nuclear deal, reports PTI.

The India-US nuclear cooperation agreement was signed in October 2008, ending India’s isolation by the West in the nuclear and space arena. The deal has given a significant boost to India’s nuclear energy production.

Pressler was speaking at an event organised by The Hudson Institute, a top American think-tank, to discuss his latest book ‘Neighbours in Arms: An American Senator’s Quest for Disarmament in a Nuclear Subcontinent’.

“...There was nothing to it really. If you look into it, it is more of an arms sale agreement,” he alleged.

Pressler claimed the then US president Barack Obama’s visit to New Delhi was “largely an arms sale trip”.