Nuclear - Articles

Despite being one of the first countries to support India’s nuclear programme, Canadian shipments of nuclear equipment and material were abruptly suspended by Ottawa after India’s first test in 1974. Even though the two countries have always had a very deep and dynamic relationship due to “common values and shared traditions of democracy, the rule of law and pluralism”, Canada severely criticized the nuclear test and expressed its deep disappointment in view of the fact that India used Canadian nuclear technology to build a bomb.

The original bilateral deal included an agreement that India would only use Canadian nuclear support for peaceful purposes and would therefore be provided with a CIRUS (Canada India Research US) which is a nuclear reactor using heavy water supplied by US. Canada sold two CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) reactors to India in 1963 and 1966, which have been cloned since then. This isolation has never been total because Canadian scientists were still “permitted to meet their Indian counterparts as part of the CANDU Owners Group, an informal club of CANDU operators, in order to share public information on safety.” Furthermore, the fact that today one million Canadians are of Indian origin connects India and Canada in a special way. It could be argued that renewed civil nuclear cooperation was therefore inevitable, since the Indo-US nuclear deal of 2005 re-opened the doors for nuclear cooperation between India and the international community. Canada finally joined the group of seven countries already having a civil nuclear deal with India, namely: Argentina, France, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Namibia, Russia and the United States and is thus bridging the 33-year gap of negotiations between the two countries.

The Indian and Canadian Prime Ministers discussed their nuclear issues during Stephen Harper’s visit in early November, and while meeting on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port of Spain, where they finally reached an agreement for a civil nuclear deal which is to be completed in 2010 during Manmohan Singh’s visit to Canada. Since the 45-nation National Suppliers Group (NSG) lifted a 34-year old ban on New Delhi to join international nuclear trade last year, there are no significant stumbling blocks, which could hinder further collaboration on the nuclear issue. It has always been in the Canadian interest to deepen its ties with India due to its importance as an emerging economic market, where Canada could risk losing its niche to a competitor like France. The fact that Canada is the world’s largest producer of uranium and sells about US$ 500 million worth of uranium per year, of which 85 per cent is exported, shows its relevance for India’s nuclear programme.

It is becoming clear that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s favourable attitude towards India represents more than a “diplomatic handshake”, with Canadian sales set to expand the US$5 billion-a-year trade between Ottawa and New Delhi in the following years. Even though both the Prime Ministers praised each other for their work and negotiations on the impending civil nuclear deal, it seems that the memories of the betrayal of Canadian confidence are still fixed in some minds and disarmament advocates are calling for India to sign a moratorium on fissile material and to agree on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). However, there are also voices defending Indo-Canadian nuclear cooperation, such as Ernie Regehr of Project Ploughshares. He states that “there is a special problem with nuclear proliferation. If [Canada sells] uranium to India, the danger is not that it will be used for building weapons. But it will ease the pressure on India’s domestic resources so it can use its own (uranium) for its military program.” Additional support is coming from Carleton University’s expert on nuclear arms and disarmament, Trevor Findlay, who affirms that “the real benefit for Canada is its heavy water technology. Only two countries in the world, India and Canada, use it. They’ve been in two separate tracks, but now there’s an opportunity to get together and sell technology.”

Support for the Indo-Canadian civil nuclear deal therefore clearly exists and will lead to its completion in 2010. The deal does not just represent a tremendous change in Indo-Canadian relations, but also stands for another step out of nuclear isolation for India after its nuclear test explosions of 1974. However, points of concern remain with regard to a new civil nuclear deal for India, with Pakistan feeling more and more isolated by the international community. Further deals could threaten the stability of the South Asian region due to the fact that Pakistan is developing the sentiment of a need for nuclear start up in order to catch up with India. Such a situation would complicate the trilateral relations of China, India and Pakistan, unbalancing their current status and therefore affecting the global community as well.