Abstract

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to Washington DC in July 2005, signed an agreement on India-US Civil Nuclear Deal (CND). The ultimate aim of the CND is to enable India to get access to the state-of-the-art civil nuclear technology to enable India to keep pace with the growing demand for energy, thereby achieving energy security, which will help India to diversify and promote clean and environment-friendly source of energy. The US coming forward to offer the CND to India was a belated admission of their failure to prevent India acquiring nuclear weapons state status. George W Bush decided to change the policy towards India and politically it was feasible. Hence, he decided to get India on board in curbing further proliferation by co-opting India. However, since the Indian approval of the 123 Agreement on August 1, 2007, there has been a long delay in moving further on remaining three stages: 1) signing India-specific IAEA protocols on nuclear safeguards; 2) Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) exempting civil nuclear trade with India; and 3) the US Congressional approval to the 123 Agreement in completing CND. With political realignment in the Lok Sabha and the UPA government winning the vote of confidence, CND is likely to be finalized before the year end.