Reading academics analyse 123 Agreement
Monday, 09 May 2011
symbol of nuclear power
University academics are heading analysis of the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement between the United States and India. Dr Robert P Barnidge, Jr., along with Drs James Green and Anne Thies, of the School of Law, and Prof. Sandeep Gopalan (now of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth), is leading an important three year project that is analysing relevant legal issues related to a recent nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and India.
Known as the 123 Agreement, the aim of this treaty is to facilitate the exchange of civil nuclear technology between the two countries.
The 123 Agreement was signed by the United States and India in 2008 to put into action the Joint Statement by United States President George W Bush and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 whereby India agreed to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and place the former under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
The 123 Agreement is exceptional in that it goes against the grain of several decades of United States non-proliferation practice and implicitly recognises India's status as a nuclear weapons state.
Several jointly organised workshops have already taken place in India to discuss issues of international law associated with the 123 agreement. One outcome of these is that a postgraduate International Law and Nuclear Energy module has been introduced into the curricula in both the University of Reading and the Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, Chennai.
Through these workshops taking place in Reading and India, a dedicated website, publication of a selection of the workshop proceedings in hard copy form, and a collaborative teaching element, this three year project has provided an opportunity to analyse relevant issues and is giving a legal perspective to the politicised nature of the debate in South Asia. It has been generously funded by the British Academy under its UK-South Asia Partnership Scheme.
For more information about the project: http://www.reading.ac.uk/123agreement/