The India-Canada Civilian Nuclear Deal

Abstract

Regimes to control weapons of mass destruction have been impressively effective, making nuclear acquisition less simple and significantly more expensive. Yet despite these mechanisms, a few states still find it to their self-defensive, prestigious, or strategic advantage to develop nuclear weapons, regardless of the dramatic international response to these proliferation decisions. India, in 1974 and then again in 1998, made such a decision, testing a nuclear device and announcing its intention to become a nuclear weapons state. Since this announcement, India has been an international nuclear pariah, a status compounded by its refusal to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, the comprehensive test ban treaty, or the fissile material cut-off treaty.1 It is this breach ofthe international regime that has raised questions, frustration, and even anger about the 2005 announcement that India and the United States were negotiating a civilian nuclear transfer agreement, effectively transforming 35 years of American and international nuclear policy. Detractors from the agreement declared the end ofthe international nonproliferation regime, arguing that the deal rewards India's nuclear proliferation and signals to other aspiring nuclear states that legitimacy is gained by those that wait it out. Supporters ofthe deal argue that the regime has been so strict in implementing the principles of nonproliferation and disarmament that there has been no room for states like India, undermining the regime's ineffectiveness.Canada made the decision to pursue its own nuclear transfer agreement with India in August 2008, following negotiations at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, yet few analyses have examined the effects such a deal would have on Canada's own foreign policy. Not only has this decision determined Canada's own nuclear position, but it changes Canada's nuclear relationship with the United States and the larger international nuclear regime, and affects its broader South Asian foreign policy.While the bulk of debate has focused on the deal's nonproliferation and disarmament effects, this article argues that the Canadian decision to sign a deal has major positive outcomes. First, the article offers a brief nuclear history of Canada's bilateral relationship with India. It goes on to establish the context of US nuclear policy leading up to the deal, particularly in relation to the events of 11 September 2001. It then details the central objectives ofthe so-called 123 deal (after section 123 ofthe US Atomic Energy Act), particularly India's energy requirements and the US nonproliferation stipulations; examines the major arguments for and against the 123 agreement in the area of international nonproliferation, with a focus on how these perspectives relate to Canada's nuclear objectives; and, finally, discusses three major arguments supporting the Harper government's decision to sign a civilian nuclear deal with India.CANADA'S HISTORICAL NUCLEAR RELATIONSHIP WITH INDIAFor obvious reasons, Canada's nuclear policy developed in parallel to its bilateral relationship with India. At the time of India's independence, there was a friendly relationship between India's Jawaharlal Nehru and Canada's Louis St. Laurent and Lester B. Pearson. Nehru's commitment to peaceful civilian nuclear energy and global disarmament was assuring to Canadian leaders, who insisted that India begin its civilian nuclear program with investment in the CANDU reactor. While Canada was committed to the idea of peaceful nuclear energy, there was hesitation by some members ofthe government who recognized that India's nuclear interests might be less benign than once assumed. Canada's decision to move forward with a nuclear transfer relationship with India was based on three arguments. First, it was possible that other states would offer India nuclear technology, but at least Canada would be in a position to offer the adequate safeguards to stop proliferation. …