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The secret undersea weapon Sandeep Unnithan January 17, 2008 Located up the winding shipping channel in Visakhapatnam harbour is a secret, completely enclosed facility known only as the Shipbuilding Centre (SBC). Inside this dry dock, nearly 50m below ground level, is a cylindrical black shape, which is as tall as a two-storey building and at 104 m in length, is longer than the Qutub Minar lying on its side. Technicians working on it confess to a surge of national pride: India’s first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine or SSBN is arguably its greatest engineering project. For over a quarter of a...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India and the United States unveiled the much-awaited text outlining their landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal on Friday, and analysts said it appeared to have met New Delhi's key demands. The deal aims to give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment, overturning a three-decade ban imposed after New Delhi, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, conducted a nuclear test in 1974. Although the framework deal was approved by the U.S. Congress last December, talks over a bilateral pact, called the 123 agreement after a section of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, had run...

India rejects US nuclear deal condition NDTV Correspondent Monday, April 17, 2006 (New Delhi): India has rejected a US condition that it will end nuclear cooperation if New Delhi tested a nuclear device. The clause was included in a US draft agreement on civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries. India pointed out it has already announced a voluntary moratorium on nuclear tests. India and the United States reached the deal during a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Washington last July. It was signed when President George Bush visited Delhi in March. Under the deal, New Delhi agreed...

AUSTRALIA and India, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, once remarked with acute insight, are two countries with a great deal in common but which have very little to do with each other. Prime Minister John Howard will try to remedy that tomorrow night when he arrives in Delhi for a three-day visit to India which will also take in Mumbai, the commercial and entertainment capital, and Chennai (formerly Madras), the heart of Tamil civilisation. Howard's visit is deadly serious. It is a recognition of the unique intersection of geo-strategic, economic, cultural and diplomatic importance which is accumulating around New...

Howard 'following Bush on uranium' PRIME Minister John Howard was again holding on to the coat tails of US President George W. Bush in considering selling uranium to India, Labor's resources spokesman, Martin Ferguson, said today. Australia should decide what was right on the issue, not simply follow America, he said. Mr Howard, visiting New Delhi, said he would be happy to listen when his Indian counterpart today asked if his country could buy Australian uranium. Mr Bush last week signed a historic nuclear accord with India. Although details of the nuclear pact were not been released, negotiators had been...

WASHINGTON, FRIDAY 03: US critics accused President George W Bush on Thursday of selling out weapons non-proliferation goals in order to close a landmark nuclear deal with New Delhi, hardening battle lines as the US Congress prepares to debate its fate. Congress and the 44-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group must both approve the agreement, which would allow India, after three decades of pariah status, access to billions of dollars in US and other foreign atomic technology and fuel to meet its soaring energy needs. Although many US lawmakers favor closer ties with the world's largest democracy, non-proliferation advocates said details that...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India and the United States have sealed a controversial nuclear cooperation pact, the centerpiece of President George W. Bush's first visit to the world's largest democracy, Indian news channels said on Thursday.

BEIJING (AFX) - China has said nuclear co-operation between the United States and India must conform with the rules of the global non-proliferation regime. 'Co-operation must conform with the requirements and provisions of the international non-proliferation regime and the obligations undertaken by all countries,' foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told Agence France-Presse. Qin was speaking to reporters in Beijing as US President George W Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sealed a nuclear deal in New Delhi seen as the bedrock of a new bilateral strategic partnership. ph/kma/lod/gf/dk

(2006-03-02) — As part of an historic nuclear deal between the U.S. and India, President George Bush announced today that officials at U.S. nuclear power plants who experience technical difficulties will call a toll-free number to get immediate help from a tech-support center in New Delhi. “Our friendship with the people of India grows stronger every day,” said President Bush. “It’s good to know that from now on, when a nuculer reactor starts to overheat, or meltdown, the plant manager can call on the world leaders in concise and courteous customer service. They’ll hear that cheerful voice saying, ‘Hello, my...

WASHINGTON: US critics accused President George W Bush of selling out weapons non-proliferation goals in order to close a landmark nuclear deal with New Delhi, hardening battle lines as the US Congress prepares to debate its fate. Congress and the 44-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group must both approve the agreement, which would allow India, after three decades of pariah status, access to billions of dollars in US and other foreign atomic technology and fuel to meet its soaring energy needs. Although many US lawmakers favor closer ties with the world's largest democracy, non-proliferation advocates said details that had so far emerged...

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has welcomed a nuclear agreement between the US and India. International Atomic Energy Agency chief (IAEA) Mohammed ElBaradei said it would boost non-proliferation efforts. The UK and France also hailed the deal. But it was criticised by some members of the US Congress, who said it would lead to the spread of nuclear weapons. Under the accord, India gets access to US civil nuclear technology and opens its nuclear facilities to inspection. US President George W Bush - who finalised the agreement with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi - called...

China urged India to abandon nuclear weapons and strengthen atomic safeguards as President George W Bush and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sealed a controversial nuclear pact on Thursday. Under the deal signed while Bush visited Delhi, the United States offered India nuclear fuel and technology in return for India agreeing to put a wall between its civilian and military nuclear facilities and place its civilian programme under international inspections. Some US lawmakers and nuclear experts have criticised the deal, saying it weakens international safeguards, especially the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which India has refused to join. China added its voice...

WASHINGTON: The US Congress was divided on the groundbreaking India-US nuclear cooperation agreement finalised on Thursday by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, even as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came out in support of the deal. Members of the Congress who have traditionally supported the deal, like Joe Wilson and Joe Crowley, sent out a "Dear Colleague" letter to members of the house urging them to support the pact that requires the Congress to change US laws for its implementation. At the same time, others like Ed Markey vocally opposed the agreement on the grounds...

NEW DELHI (AP) - Reversing decades of U.S. policy, President Bush ushered India into the world's exclusive nuclear club Thursday with a landmark agreement to share nuclear reactors, fuel and expertise with this energy-starved nation in return for its acceptance of international safeguards. Eight months in the making, the accord would end India's long isolation as a nuclear maverick that defied world appeals and developed nuclear weapons. India agreed to separate its tightly entwined nuclear industry - declaring 14 reactors as commercial facilities and eight as military - and to open the civilian side to international inspections for the first...

NEW DELHI - President Bush gets his first chance Wednesday to see the vast economic and social transformations that many say make India a key global partner for America. Fords and Chevrolets now compete for space on the streets with auto-rickshaws; young men and women tap away at keyboards, writing software code for American companies. Since Bush took office in 2001, India and the U.S. have made dramatic steps toward forging a strategic partnership after decades of Cold War animosity, a growing closeness that’s based as much on trade as it is on politics. But the U.S. still imports far...

Bush's journey to India Washington and New Delhi see benefits in a new relationship 3/6/06 NEW DELHI--Where, in a world rife with anti-Americanism, can you find most people owning up to warm feelings for the Bush administration? One of those few places is here, in the South Asian giant of India, where President Bush arrives this week to mark rapidly warming relations between the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest.A recent poll found that nearly 3 out of 4 Indians hold a favorable impression of the United States, solid base for the visiting president. "I like Bush," volunteers a...

N-deal done, wait for Bush Nilova Roy Chaudhury New Delhi, February 24, 2006 Indian and American officials reported "progress" in the talks of the joint working group on Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation, indicating that they had arrived at an understanding that would be announced when US President George Bush arrives next week. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confirmed that the talks had been "fruitful". An announcement, in the form of a joint declaration, is likely to be made after the US President meets with the Prime Minister for formal talks at Hyderabad House on March 2. A core group, comprising National...

US asks India to join new N-order Pramit Pal Chaudhuri Washington, February 8, 2006 Nuclear energy’s GenNext has been put on offer before India. US officials made an extended briefing on the new Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) in New Delhi at the second meeting of the Indo-US Energy Dialogue steering committee on Wednesday. Officials from both countries say the Bush administration plans to formally invite India as soon as the current Indo-US nuclear deal is signed. The GNEP envisages a new worldwide nuclear system in which a core of supplier nations will provide nuclear fuel and technology to a...

WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - A landmark U.S.-Indian nuclear cooperation deal could be hampered by India's reluctance to refer Iran's nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council and to open enough of its own atomic facilities to inspection, U.S. officials and experts said on Friday. Both issues will be discussed when Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns visits New Delhi for talks on Jan. 19. Bush, in a controversial policy shift last July 18, promised nuclear-armed India full cooperation in developing its civilian atomic power industry in return for New Delhi's commitment to international nonproliferation standards. The deal, which would...

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 6: Amid debate in the US over the July 18 nuclear deal with India, former Presidential candidate and high-profile US Democrat Senator John Kerry will make a brief visit to India next week as the Bush Administration prepares to approach Congress for an exemption to take the deal forward. Kerry, edged out by Bush in a closely fought election last year, is slated to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 11. He is currently also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Considered an ardent advocate of tightening non-proliferation controls, a supportive view by Kerry...