123 Agreement

123 Agreement: What is it?
Section 123 of the United States Atomic Energy Act of 1954, titled "Cooperation With Other Nations", establishes an agreement for cooperation as a prerequisite for nuclear deals between the US and any other nation.Such an agreement is called a 123 Agreement. To date, the U.S. has entered into roughly twenty-five 123 Agreements with various countries.
India proposed for Indo-US 123 act in 2005 for the transfer of nuclear energy and nuclear fuels for civil use.
History so far……..
In the year 1968 NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty) was signed between 5 nuclear power holding countries – USA,Soviet Union,Great Britain,France and China and some of other countries which do not had nuclear power.Their vision was to ensure that the devastating power should not be handed over to any other freak country.But this treaty had the seed of problems of the future.This treaty enabled the five nuclear power holding countries to test more ,but other countries lost that power.India did not sign that treaty for this kind of unequal conditions.
Activity by India :
India tested nuclear weapon POKHRAN-1 first in 1974.Immidietly other countries of the world formed a group named Nuclear Supplier’s Group(NSG) and excluded India from any kind of exchange of nuclear knowledge or nuclear fuels.Even after that India tested for the second time POKHRAN-2 in the year 1998.Whole world specially USA was against it.Indian PM Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee then announced a moratorium on nuclear test depicting that India already have enough nuclear knowledge.But after that also the banning by NSG was not lifted.
The after effect of 9/11……
India was also in a clear shortage of nuclear fuels as it was needed for production of power and India do not have enough nuclear fuel to serve its own long term needs.So after 9/11 while US was in a clear threat from terrorism and economic threat from china,they wanted to get India as a friend to capture the market of easten civilization .India also utilised this situation and in the year of 2005 in the US tour,Indian PM Mr. Manmohan Singh proposed for the supply of nuclear energy and knowledge to US. The Hyde Act, a 2006 bill that gave preliminary approval to the Indo-US pact, officially requires that Congress be in 30 days of continuous session to consider the deal. But Congress cannot take up the agreement until the NSG passes it.
Response of rest of the world…..
America agreed to the proposed plan by India and requested the other countries to make an exception in case of India .But other countries of NPT and NSG strongly protested as India was still a country outside NPT ,and so it has the power to test nuclear weapon at any time.USA fought for India to these countries citing two main view points-
1.Economic point of view : India is a very fast developing countrywith mammoth population.So Indian market was very lucrative for every other country of the world.
2.Strategic point of view: India is out of NPT ,so other countries do not have any countrol over India,but after 123 agreement at least they will be forming some pressure over India.
Even after that 6 countries --- Austria,Ireland,Netherlands,Switzerland,Norway and New Zealand was against the notion of supplying the nuke power to India.
NSG’s Vienna meet…….
On 6th Septeber’08, at NSG’s vienna meet after strong arguments India got the waiver from NSG.Indo-US nuke deal got the approval of NSG..India became the first country of the world to get the NSG waiver without signing the NPT.
What India got?
1.The rare position of becoming the only country to get the waiver from NSG without signing the NPT.
2.The ever increasing demand of nuclear power in various fields of India seems to get a solution.
3.The mental step up to be a more important country.
4.Coming out of the brace in whch rest of the world used to put India and Pakistan within.
What India lose?
Foreign Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has reiterated voluntery moratorium on nuclear testing,i.e India will not be able to conduct the nuclear tests anymore,though it is not mentioned any where in the NSG waiver that in case India does so, it will automatically end the waiver.So, the deal was clear a win win position for India.
What next?
The 123 agreement will be brought to US congress.The US congress will end on 28th of September’08.By US rule to say yes or no there should be a 30 days time limit.But there is US presidential election on 4th of November.There is not enough time to call for a new congree,so it’s a special request by US president Mr. George Bush to take the agreement to consider before 30 days .It is expected that on his US tour On 27-28th of September MR. Manmohan Singh will sign the agreement and make the deal final provided the US congress pass the agreement befor that.
Conclusion:
The need for the nuclear energy was inevitable.With the increasing demand of the power in India,it would have been a colossal problem to confront in future.So we definitely needed the NSG to approve the deal.Now presently India is at upper hand as for not signing in the NPT or CTBT(Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty),but at the same time getting the approval of NSG.And we may hope for a better future economically too as India in turn taking a step now in becoming one of the global economic leader in coming years.