Delhi-based environment think-tank CSE will be honoured with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development this year for its work in environmental education and protection. According
Russian and U.S. officials signed an important agreement on civilian nuclear power on Tuesday that will give the U.S. access to Russian technology and could hand Moscow lucrative deals for storing spent fuel. The deal, signed on the eve of Dmitry Medvedev's inauguration as President, signals a reversal in U.S. policy on cooperating with Russia on nuclear issues. Cooperation had cooled in recent years, mainly due to disagreements over how to handle the perceived nuclear threat from Iran.
What is the crucial nuclear issue facing the country? It is not the strategic arsenal. The former National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, one of the very few people who had access to classified information on it and who in fact formulated the policy is satisfied that our strategic programme will proceed on the lines formulated by the NDA government. It is not the issue of India's right to test.
A traumatic scene opens up. From a silent abettor of Pakistan's nuclear strivings in the eighties and early nineties, American policy-making has made a sharp u-turn. It has become jittery over the fate of the Pakistani nuclear stockpile and wants to position itself in the role of a policeman watching over Pakistan's nuclear weapon facility. Why has this happened - what has brought about this sharp juxtaposition? Most important of all is the question: can the US force itself on Pakistan in this role of a nuclear policeman? We have here the proverbial riddle wrapped in an enigma.
New Delhi: Leader of the opposition L K Advani on Sunday reiterated BJP's opposition to the India-US nuclear deal, saying it barred New Delhi from further tests. But Brajesh Mishra, national security adviser in the previous NDA government, contradicted the stand in an interview to a TV channel.
Even as BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani on Sunday reiterated his party's opposition to the India-US nuclear deal, saying it could not go ahead in the present form as it barred New Delhi from further tests, Brajesh Mishra, national security adviser in the previous NDA government, contradicted the stand in a TV interview.
Contradicting the BJP's views on the nuclear deal with the U.S., the former National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, has said India should go ahead with the agreement, failing which the country would suffer a "severe loss of face' and its atomic programme a setback. Mr. Mishra, who served in the previous BJP-led government, said the deal should be concluded during the tenure of Bush administration as change of government in the U.S. would make things difficult.
But don't support military options against Tehran Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes visiting New Delhi on Tuesday. Since the last visit by an Iranian president in 2003, the suspected efforts to acquire nuclear weapon by Tehran has become a bone of contention between the two countries. Iran formally denies that it has any ambition to become a nuclear weapons power. At the same time it asserts its right under Article IV of the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) to develop uranium enrichment technology for peaceful purposes.
The United States has said that the civilian nuclear initiative with India is bound by the 123 Agreement and not the Hyde Act. It also saw no inconsistency between the two. "We don't see any inconsistency between what we were allowed to do and required to do under the Hyde Act, but what binds India and the United States together is the 123 Agreement, not the Act,' Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said here.
Signalling that the UPA government is still hopeful of taking the Indo-US civil nuclear deal forward, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the Government would take a "sense of the House' on the deal before it is taken up for ratification by the US Congress. "Even if you have the right to sign the treaty, for implementation of the international treaty, you require legislations and these have to be done by Parliament. If at that point of time, Parliament refuses to move the legislation, the international agreement will be of no use,' Mukherjee told reporters.
Under normal circumstances, the event that got India international respect would have been an occasion to celebrate by the country's
