By Praful Midwai
NEW DELHI, Sep 13 (IPS) - As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives in New York via Paris, for a United Nations summit and for meetings with United States President George W. Bush and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, India is attempting a difficult balancing act involving its relations with Washington, Tehran, Paris and Islamabad.
Indian diplomacy faces three tests: How to defend the proposed Iran- Pakistan-India gas pipeline against U.S. pressure? How to negotiate the tricky steps in the civilian nuclear cooperation deal India signed with the U.S. in July, just as it faces opposition in the U.S. Congress because of nuclear non-proliferation concerns? And how to use leverage with France and the European Union (EU) to secure a better energy bargain while retaining India's nuclear weapons?
Singh's trip to the U.S. follows British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit last week to New Delhi, his first visit after Britain assumed the EU presidency. During his discussions with Blair, Singh solicited and received Britain's support in lifting the Nuclear Suppliers Group's (NSG) embargo on nuclear commerce with India.
The 44-member NSG has tough ''guidelines'' which demand close international inspections on the part of the country importing nuclear plants, materials and technologies from its member-states. In July, the U.S. promised to make a special exemption for India in getting the NSG to relax its rules.
In Paris, on Monday, Singh received an assurance from President Jacques Chirac too that France would leave ''no stone unturned'' to enable India to meet its civilian nuclear needs, through a relaxation of NSG ''guidelines''.
There was a clear, visible quid pro quo for France's ''commitment''. Just last week, the Indian cabinet hurriedly cleared two commercial deals, with big financial benefits, for French manufacturers: one for the purchase of six 'Scorpene' submarines and the other to buy 43 Airbus aircraft for Indian Airlines, the domestic carrier. Each deal is in excess of two billion US dollars.
In Paris, Singh officially recorded that he was ''confirming'' India's decisions, which are ''of course, a token of confidence, friendship and cooperation''. Officials said that India is ready to buy nuclear reactors from France, one of the major manufacturers of such plants in the world, which controversially derives 78 percent of its electricity from atomic sources.
According to energy experts, such as Prof. A.K.N. Reddy of the independent, International Energy Initiative and M.V. Ramana of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development in Bangalore, India's urgent energy needs are unlikely to be fulfilled through nuclear power.
These experts forcefully argue that the Jul. 18 deal signed with the U.S. is based on ''false assumptions'' and that ''a good case can be made'' out that India does not need ''nuclear energy for its development and the well-being of its people''.
Nuclear power in India has a poor record, marked by missed targets, huge cost overruns, numerous accidents and excessive exposure of workers to radiation and other hazards. Nuclear power is increasingly unpopular and there is growing resistance to uranium mining and establishment of nuclear plants.
Of far greater and immediate importance for India's growing energy needs are secure supplies of oil and gas, besides renewable sources. Like China, and in competition with it, India has been furiously signing long- term petroleum and gas purchase and exploration/production contracts with a range of countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Venezuela and Russia.
''That's where the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline comes in'', says Prof. Anuradha Chenoy, who teaches international relations at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. ''It's a project that eminently suits the interests of all three Asian countries.''
She observed that the pipeline represented for India a gateway not just to West Asia, but eventually to Central Asia with its vast energy resources.
The U.S. has stepped up its opposition to the Iran-India pipeline in advance of a meeting of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA) on Sep.19 and is pressing for referring Iran's nuclear programme to the UN Security Council for punitive measures.
Last week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice explicitly demanded support from India, Russia and China to stop what it regards as Iran's effort at nuclear proliferation through uranium enrichment. Iran claims its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and cites its right to conduct it under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Last week, at a Congressional Committee hearing, Representative Tom Lantos explicitly criticised India for not helping the U.S. in stopping nuclear proliferation by Iran and called India's position ''sickening, literally sickening'' and the Indian foreign minister ''dense''. This drew strong protests from New Delhi.
''The U.S. is making a big mistake in publicly mounting such pressure'', says Hamid Ansari, a former diplomat, ambassador to Iran and a West Asia expert. ''It is also pushing for a division through a vote in the IAEA board knowing that the IAEA always takes decisions by consensus. The U.S. is insensitive to the complexities of the nuclear issue in Iran, and the prospect of negotiating a reasonable agreement with it''.
Talks between Iran and the EU-3 (Germany, France and Britain) recently broke down after Iran was required to never enrich uranium. Following the breakdown, Iran took further steps in its uranium enrichment programme though the country is believed, by independent experts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, to be five years away from developing nuclear weapons.
