From the dependable to the demanding partner: the renegotiation of French nuclear cooperation with India, 1974–80

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the shift in French nuclear export policy during 1974–80 leading to renegotiation of bilateral contracts between India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and France’s Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA). This reassessment of French-Indian nuclear partnership by Giscard d’Estaing’s government initially resulted from its concerns that France might be implicated in India’s 1974 nuclear explosion. Neither country had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the CEA and DAE were long-time technology partners, and both opposed multilateral safeguards. The French reassessment later received a major thrust from improved US-French bilateral relations, and French participation in the Nuclear Suppliers Group.