{"id":2201,"date":"2019-04-18T19:20:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T19:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-edict.in\/?p=2201"},"modified":"2019-04-18T19:20:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T19:20:08","slug":"news-on-nukes-shivshankar-menon-on-the-indo-us-nuclear-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/2019\/04\/18\/news-on-nukes-shivshankar-menon-on-the-indo-us-nuclear-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"News on Nukes: Shivshankar Menon on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Ishita Chawla, UG\u201921<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Tuesday,\na bunch of enthusiastic (and hungry) Ashokans skipped their lunch hour to\nengage in discussion with Indian diplomat, Shivshankar Menon, regarding the Indo-US\nnuclear deal. Mr. Menon was the national security advisor of India under Prime\nMinister Manmohan Singh. His public service career has ranged from disarmament\npolicy to foreign relations and diplomacy. Some of his most notable work was\nduring his position in China as ambassador, where he significantly contributed\nto enhancing Sino-Indian relations. He has even authored a book titled \u201cChoices:\nInside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy\u201d. Now venturing\ninto the world of teaching too, Mr. Menon is a visiting faculty of\nInternational Relations department right here at Ashoka, teaching a course\ncalled \u201cIndia in South Asia\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After around\n30 years of US imposed sanctions on India, talks of a nuclear deal between the\ntwo countries finally began in 2005. India itself has little to no supply of\nUranium and after the 1974 sanctions, even countries with a rich supply,\nrefused to sell it to us. As a result, Indian nuclear reactors were running at\nonly 60% capacity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Menon\nreiterated the fact that going forward with the deal was hugely beneficial for\nboth parties. \u201cThe rise of India is in the strategic interest of the US\u201d, he\nremarked. It was in the US\u2019s interest to make an investment in a country like\nIndia, with an exponential growth projection. On the other hand, it was in\nIndia\u2019s interest to be transformed, especially by a superpower like the US back\nthen. However, getting the deal together was no cakewalk. At the start of\nnegotiations, India was understandably on the fence about the whole affair. The\nUS originally wanted to shut down our nuclear program and were now asking India\nto make a special exemption for them. To prove their commitment to the deal, the\nUS, a state which did not allow cooperation with non-weapon states, was willing\nto amend its laws to work with India. But getting the deal geared up was not\nthe only hurdle. After several delays, the deal had to be negotiated before\nBush\u2019s presidency came to an end. India was forced to negotiate with each of\nthe 44 countries of the NSG, some of which had no weapons, in a very short amount\nof time. Further, the deal took place during the 2008 financial crisis. In\nretrospect, Menon remarks, it would\u2019ve been easy for both Bush and Singh to\nwalk away from the deal at such a time of turmoil. However, both countries were\ndetermined to make the deal work, and each leader showed resolve and\ncommitment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal was\none of the crowning moments of Manmohan Singh\u2019s term and consisted of several\nnegotiations from both sides. The US gave us fuel supply assurances from them\nand their allies, while India promised to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation.\nTowards the end of the talk, Menon also briefly touched upon the implications\nand personal learnings that came of the deal. He talked of how he realized the\nsheer power and influence the US had over the rest of the world at the time:\nwhen they wanted something, they would have it. Further, Menon accepted that\nthe deal was not all roses. It frightened both Pakistan and China, and their\ncommitment to each other strengthened greatly post the NSG clearance in 2008. However,\nour reactors now work at full capacity, and this strategic partnership was a\ncrucial factor towards the development of friendly Indo-US relations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ishita Chawla, UG\u201921 Last Tuesday, a bunch of enthusiastic (and hungry) Ashokans skipped their lunch hour to engage in discussion with Indian diplomat, Shivshankar Menon, regarding the Indo-US nuclear deal. Mr. Menon was the national security advisor of India under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. His public service career has ranged from disarmament policy to foreign…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[30,310,153,309],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2203,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201\/revisions\/2203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}