Washington, Aug. 4 (PTI): The US has said India retains the "sovereign right" to explode a nuclear device but hoped that such a situation will not arise.
"India retains its sovereign rights, but the US retains its legal rights as well," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told a group of journalists here yesterday when asked whether New Delhi has the right to test.
Noting that the agreement has taken into account the "worst case" scenario, he said "but we hope very much that it (Right of Return of nuclear fuel and technology) won't be necessary because we hope that conditions that prompt" it "will not materialise."
Burns suggested that New Delhi may not explode an atomic device as "advanced nuclear powers", like the US and UK, "largely do not test nuclear weapons" in the modern world.
He said the US preserved the "legal right" to recall fuel and technology but that would be the "choice" of the President of the day and "not automatic".
"If you look ahead and you try to envision what would constitute a discontinuity of supply, how would that happen. There are four or five or six ways that could happen and only one of them has to do with a nuclear test," Burns said.
"If somehow supplies for environmental reasons, for political reasons is discontinued to India, then of course India has the benefit of working with the US and other countries in construction of a strategic fuel supply reserve that could help it, if there is discontinuity," he said.
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