Let us now dispose of the major arguments designed to kill the deal. First, does the deal interfere with India's sovereignty? Now no honest person can deny that India desperately needs nuclear fuel. We were desperately looking for suppliers. They were not looking for buyers. Sovereign India has not been able to acquire it by any methods suggested either by some railing scientists or by the Left parties or the BJP. When our national needs compel the deal, all talk of sovereignty is meaningless. Every contract treaty or covenant f r e e ly ent e r ed into impos e s obligations not to act in defiance of the terms agreed upon. This is exertion of sovereignty and not its denial or dilution. The five nuclear powe r s thems e lve s have a l l undertaken to ban further nuclear tests. They have stopped producing more highly enriched uranium and plutonium for
weapons.

“As regards India's fuel supply assurances, we should be able to stock, independent of any US action, fuel for the lifetime operation of all the reactors. There is no requirement under the 123 Agreement (unlike the case of the old Tarapur agreement) that facilities imported from the US should use only US-supplied fuel. Thus, India will be free to acquire lifetime fuel for US reactors also from other sources, without being subject to any right of return by the US,” writes Shri. S K Singh, Governor of Arunachal Pradesh and a former Foreign Secretary of India in Hindustan Times (August 12, 2007).

In principle, therefore, the US retains the right to stop supply of fuel if India conducts a test, and the US President exercises the option to cease nuclear cooperation with India. The Agreement also requires the US “to take into account whether the circumstances that may lead to termination or cessation resulted from a party's serious concern about the changed security environment or as a response to similar action by other States which could impact national security”. This clearly is a concession to the dangerous nuclear and missile n e i g h b o u r h o o d , i n w h i c h unpredictable neighbours too live. One should assume that this language indicates that the US has already factored into this Agreement the possibility of continuing the supplies to India.