'India must re-negotiate its N-deal with US'

The former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra feels the deal will affect India's strategic nuclear programmes.

India must re-negotiate its nuclear deal with the US in order to save its strategic interests, former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra said on Tuesday night.

HT Image

In an interview to a television channel, he said "we must have some kind of deal with the US and the NSG, the Nuclear Supplier Group. It is to our advantage. The problem with this deal is that it will affect our strategic nuclear programme, that is the development of our nuclear warheads."

Elaborating, he said the US is talking about specific facilities to be put under IAEA safeguards which would lead to curbing our capacity to maintain a credible minimum deterrent which was envisaged in our nuclear doctrine adopted two years ago.

To a question on why he was opposed to putting the nuclear reactors under the IAEA safeguard while he supported the same when he was the national security advisor and in fact proposed that two such reactors should be placed under IAEA safeguard, he said what he had offered to the US at that time was a couple of our existing reactors and what we build in future but not the reactors under construction.

"My offer was not accepted by the US," Mishra said adding if Americans had agreed with the offer "we would have certainly negotiated subsequently".