From the dependable to the demanding partner: the renegotiation of French nuclear cooperation with India, 1974–80

ABSTRACT

This article examines the shift in French nuclear export policy during 1974–80 leading to renegotiation of bilateral contracts between India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and France’s Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA). This reassessment of French-Indian nuclear partnership by Giscard d’Estaing’s government initially resulted from its concerns that France might be implicated in India’s 1974 nuclear explosion. Neither country had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the CEA and DAE were long-time technology partners, and both opposed multilateral safeguards. The French reassessment later received a major thrust from improved US-French bilateral relations, and French participation in the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

KEYWORDS:

• France
• India
• non-proliferation
• Nuclear Suppliers Group
• United States

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to the two anonymous reviewers who provided thoughtful comments on earlier drafts. Previous versions of this article also benefitted from valuable feedback from Benoît Pelopidas and the participants in the two workshops that he organised at SciencesPo CERI in May 2017 and November 2018.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ “Nos voisins et les autres pays n’ont rien à craindre de l’Inde déclare Mme Gandhi,” Le Monde, 28 May 1974, Carton 2252, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques: explosion indienne, 1973 – June 1980, Centre des Archives Diplomatiques de la France, La Courneuve (hereafter, ADF).

² Support for India’s PNE also came from outside the CEA in France, notably from General Pierre-Marie Gallois. See: Pierre M. Gallois, “L’Inde et le droit à la Sécurité,” Politique étrangère 40, no. 3 (1975): 293–306.

³ Telegram from Homi Sethna to Valery Giscard d’Estaing, 20 May 1974, Carton 2253, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques: explosion indienne, 1973 – June 1980, ADF.

⁴ Jayita Sarkar, “Wean them away from French Tutelage: Franco-Indian Nuclear Relations and Anglo-American Anxieties during the Early Cold War, 1948–1952,” Cold War History 15, no. 3 (2015): 375–94; and Jayita Sarkar, “Compatriotes de l’atome? La coopération nucléaire franco-indienne, 1950–76,” Critique Internationale 63 (2014/2): 131–49.

⁵ Sumit Ganguly, “India’s Pathway to Pokhran II: The Prospects and Sources of India’s Nuclear Weapons Program,” International Security 23, no. 4 (1999): 148–77; and Jayita Sarkar, “The Making of a Non-Aligned Nuclear Power: India’s Proliferation Drift, 1964–8,” International History Review 37, no. 5 (2015): 933–50.

⁶ Balazs Szalontai, “The Elephant in the Room: The Soviet Union and India’s Nuclear Program, 1967–89,” NPIHP Working Paper #1, Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, Washington, DC, November 2011. Statements made by representatives of the US Government on India’s peaceful nuclear experiment, undated, circa late May 1974, WII/103(18)74, MEA, Secret, Folder: India’s peaceful nuclear experiment- 18.5.74- official American reaction, National Archives of India, New Delhi (hereafter, NAI). See also: Jayita Sarkar, “India’s Nuclear Limbo and the Fatalism of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime, 1974–83,” Strategic Analysis 37, no. 3 (2013): 322–37.

⁷ William Burr, “A Scheme of ‘Control’: The United States and the Origins of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group, 1974–76,” The International History Review 36, no. 2 (2014): 252–76.

⁸ Maurice Vaïsse, “L’historiographie française relative au nucléaire,” Revue historique des armées 262 (2011): 3–8; and Georges-Henri Soutou, “La France et la non-prolifération nucléaire,” Revue historique des armées 262 (2011): 35–45.

⁹ Beatrice Heuser, Nuclear Mentalities? Strategies and Belief in Britain, France, and the FRG (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998); and Gabrielle Hecht, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998).

¹⁰ Florent Pouponneau, La Politique Française de Nonproliferation Nucléaire: De la division du travail diplomatique (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2015); and Benoît Pelopidas, “French Nuclear Idiosyncrasy: How it Affects French Nuclear Policies Towards the United Arab Emirates and Iran,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 25, no. 1 (2012): 143–69.

¹¹ The scholarship on this subject is scant. See, for example: Florent Pouponneau, “Les Changements de la politique Française d’Exportation Nucléaires (1974–1976): Un Triple Double Jeu,” Critique Internationale 58, no. 1 (2013): 95–116; and Jayita Sarkar, “U.S. Policy to Curb West European Nuclear Exports, 1974–1978,” Journal of Cold War Studies 21, no. 2 (2019): 110–49.

¹² The term ‘supply side’ denotes the supply side of nuclear proliferation among political scientists: why and how actors provide nuclear transfers that potentially can facilitate proliferation. The term ‘demand side’ refers to why and how actors want to acquire nuclear weapons. On the supply side literature in political science, see Matthew Kroenig, Exporting the Bomb: Technology Transfer and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010); and Matthew Fuhrmann, Atomic Assistance: How “Atoms for Peace” Programs Cause Nuclear Insecurity (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012).

¹³ On a theory of sub-state organisations influencing foreign policymaking, see Nicolas Blarel and Jayita Sarkar, “Sub-State Organizations as Foreign Policy Agents: New Evidence and Theory from India, Israel and France,” Foreign Policy Analysis 15, no. 2 (2018): 413–31.

¹⁴ Project d’Intervention: Commission franco-indienne – Questions nucleaires, 26 June 1974, Carton 2253, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques: explosion indienne, 1973 – June 1980, ADF.

¹⁵ Homi J. Bhabha, “The Implications of a Wider Dispersal of Military Power for World Security and the Problem of Safeguards” (Proceedings of the Twelfth Pugwash Conference, Udaipur, 27 January – 1 February 1964), 75–80.

¹⁶ On similarity in French and Indian positions on safeguards see Bertrand Goldschmidt, “Les Problèmes Nucléaires Indiens,” Politique etrangère 47, no. 3 (1982): 617–31: For the French quest for technological partnerships in the early Cold War see: Betrand Goldschmidt, The Atomic Complex: A Worldwide Political History of Nuclear Energy (La Grange, IL: American Nuclear Society, 1982), 277–88.

¹⁷ This is one of the reasons why the French military took an active interest in the CEA’s breeder programme. See Mycle Schneider, “Fast Breeder Reactors in France,” Science and Global Security 17 (2009): 44.

¹⁸ Homi J. Bhabha and N.B. Prasad, “A Study of the Contribution of Atomic Energy to a Power Programme in India” (proceedings of the Second UN Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Geneva, 1958), 89–101; See also: M.V. Ramana, “India and Fast Breeder Reactors,” Science and Global Security 17 (2009): 54–67.

¹⁹ M.V. Ramana, The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India (New Delhi: Penguin, 2012), 14–15.

²⁰ For this CEA-EDF debate see Hecht, The Radiance of France.

²¹ Quoted in Hecht, The Radiance of France, 292.

²² “Note de la direction politique, service des affaires atomiques pour la direction d’Asie,” 2 February 1969, Document 167, 1969, vol. 1, Documents Diplomatiques Francais (hereafter, DDF).

²³ Note de la direction politique, service des affaires atomiques, 6 February 1968, Document 101, 1968, vol. 1, DDF.

²⁴ Goldschmidt, “Les Problèmes Nucléaires Indiens.”

²⁵ “Felicitations addressee a M. le President de la Republique par le President de la Commission indienne de l’energie atomique,” 8 June 1974, MAE Note No. 37/AS, Carton 2253, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques: explosion indienne, 1973 – June 1980, ADF.

²⁶ Ibid.

²⁷ Outgoing telegram No. 231 from French Foreign Ministry in Paris to French Embassy in New Delhi (signed by Angles), “Protocole/Remerciement aux felicitations addressees a M. Giscard d’Estaing,” 12 June 1974, Carton 2253, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques: explosion indienne, 1973 – June 1980, ADF.

²⁸ Project d’Intervention: Commission franco-indienne – Questions nucleaires, 26 June 1974, Carton 2253, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques: explosion indienne, 1973 – June 1980, ADF.

²⁹ Ibid.

³⁰ “Audience accordee par le Secretaire Generale a l’Ambassadeur de l’Inde,” Note No. 42/AS, 6 June 1974, Carton 2253, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques: explosion indienne, 1973 – June 1980, ADF.

³¹ “Fiche: Fourniture d’uranium enrichi a l’Inde: et Commission CEE,” 17 June 1974, MAE, Directions des Affaires Politiques: Asie-Oceanie, Carton 2253, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques: explosion indienne, 1973–80, ADF.

³² Incoming telegram No. 450/51 from French Embassy in New Delhi to MAE in Paris, “Interview accordee a l’ORTF,” Signed by Cadol, 21 June 1974, Carton 2253, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques: explosion indienne, 1973–80, ADF.

³³ Outgoing telegram ‘strictement reserve’ No. 285/89 from Services des Affaires Scientifiques at the MAE in Paris to French Embassy in New Delhi, “Renforcement des controles dans notre cooperation nucleaire avec l’Inde,” Signed by Courcel, 30 July 1974, Carton 2253, Inde, Directions Asie-Oceanie, 1973–80, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1974 juil-dec, ADF.

³⁴ Outgoing telegram ‘strictement reserve’ No. 290/91 from Services des Affaires Scientifiques at the MAE in Paris to French Embassy in New Delhi, “Renforcement des controles dans notre cooperation nucleaire avec l’Inde,” Signed by Courcel, 30 July 1974, Carton 2253, Inde, Directions Asie-Oceanie, 1973–80, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1974 juil-dec, ADF.

³⁵ Letter from Andre Giraud at CEA to Geoffrey de Courcel at MAE, 1 August 1974, Carton 2253, Inde, Directions Asie-Oceanie, 1973–80, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1974 juil-dec, ADF.

³⁶ Ibid.

³⁷ Personal letter from Bertrand Goldschmidt at CEA to Homi Sethna at DAE, Ref. DRI BG. 74.659 BG/jm, 2 August 1974, Carton 2253, Inde, Directions Asie-Oceanie, 1973–80, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1974 juil-dec, ADF.

³⁸ “France backs India’s Nuclear Project,” The Economist, 22 August 1974, Carton 2253, Inde, Directions Asie-Oceanie, 1973–80, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1974 juil-déc, ADF.

³⁹ Note pour le Secretaire General, “Objet: Invitation addressee par le President de la Comission de l’energie atomique indienne a Mm. Giraud et Goldschmidt,” Services des Affaires Scientifiques at MAE, 2 September 1974, Carton 2253, Inde, Directions Asie-Oceanie, 1973–80, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, ADF.

⁴⁰ Note from Bertrand Goldschmidt at CEA to the Services des Affaires Scientifiques at MAE, No. JR/BB/DRI/74/1895, 5 September 1974, Carton 2253, Inde, Directions Asie-Oceanie, 1973–80, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1974 juil-dec, ADF.

⁴¹ Note pour le ministre, Confidentiel, “Objet: Controles dans la cooperation nucleaire franco-indienne,” Direction Generale des Relations Culturelles Scientifiques et Techniques, Services des Affaires Scientifiques, 20 September 1974, Carton 2253, Inde, Directions Asie-Oceanie, 1973–80, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, ADF.

⁴² Nani A. Palkhivala, “Disarming the Unarmed,” Newsweek, 19 June 1978.

⁴³ Note pour le ministre, Confidentiel, “Objet: Controles dans la cooperation nucleaire franco-indienne,” 20 September 1974, ADF.

⁴⁴ Florent Pouponneau and Frédéric Mérand, “Diplomatic Practices, Domestic Fields, and the International System: Explaining France’s Shift on Nuclear Nonproliferation,” International Studies Quarterly 61, no. 1 (2017): 123–35.

⁴⁵ Note pour le ministre, Confidentiel, “Objet: Controles dans la cooperation nucleaire franco-indienne,” Direction Generale des Relations Culturelles Scientifiques et Techniques, Services des Affaires Scientifiques, 20 September 1974, Carton 2253, Inde, Directions Asie-Oceanie, 1973–80, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, ADF.

⁴⁶ “Note: Entretien du Ministre avec l’Ambassadeur de l’Inde,” Note No. 2/AS, 7 January 1975, Direction des Affaires Politiques: Asie-Oceanie, Carton 2253, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1975 Jan.–1977 Dec., ADF.

⁴⁷ Telegram No. 368/71 from French Embassy in New Delhi to MAE in Paris, Diffusion Reservee, “A/S Relations Nucleaires Franco-Indiennes,” Signed by Jurgensen, 7 May 1975, Carton 2253, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1975 Jan.–1977 Dec., ADF.

⁴⁸ “Note pour M. de Nazelle, Chef du Service des Affaires Scientifiques au Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres,” Confidentiel/Defense, Ref. DRI.BG.75.1287, By Betrand Goldschmidt at CEA, 29 September 1975, Carton 2253, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1975 Jan.–1977 Dec., ADF. For the Sethna-Moynihan conversation see: Confidential Telegram 5787 from Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 26 August 1974, Presidential Country Files for the Middle East and South Asia, Country: India (3), Box 12, Folder: India – State Department Telegrams- to SECSTATE- EXDIS (1), Gerald Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, MI.

⁴⁹ Top Secret Letter from D.N. Chatterjee to P.N. Dhar, 12 May 1975, PN Haksar Files, IIIrd installment, Correspondence with Dwarka Nath Chatterjee, 1970–80, Nehru Memorial and Museum Library, New Delhi.

⁵⁰ Ibid.

⁵¹ Telegram No. 40/45 from French Embassy in New Delhi to MAE in Paris, “A/S Accord Scientifique et Technologique,” 13 January 1976, Carton 2253, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1975 Jan.–1977 Dec., ADF.

⁵² The MAE had dissuaded Chirac from undertaking a trip to the BARC in Trombay, fearing media reports fuelling fresh controversy about French-Indian nuclear cooperation.

⁵³ Rudra Chaudhuri, “Re-reading the Indian Emergency: Britain, the United States and India’s Constitutional Autocracy, 1975–1977,” Diplomacy & Statecraft 29, no. 3 (2018): 477–98.

⁵⁴ “Note: D’une eventuelle visite du Premier Ministre au Centre indien de recherche nucleaires de Trombay,” 5 January 1975, Carton 2253, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Questions atomiques, 1975 Jan.–1977 Dec., ADF.

⁵⁵ Don Oberdofer, “US Concedes Probable US blast in Indian A-blast,” Washington Post, 9 August 1976.

⁵⁶ The French moratorium on future reprocessing plant sales was not an easy outcome. Several quid pro quo were struck between French and US governments to elicit French participation in the NSG and its cooperation with NSG guidelines such the moratorium. On this subject see: Sarkar, “U.S. Policy to Curb West European Nuclear Exports.”

⁵⁷ “Chronologie des Relations Nucleaires Franco-Indiennes,” signed by Bertrand Goldschmidt, Confidentiel, Commissariat a l’energie atomique, circa November 1978 (undated), Carton 2254, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Culture et relations culturelles, Questions atomiques, 1978 Jan.–1980 June, ADF.

⁵⁸ Secret MEA Note prepared by M.A. Vellodi, Secretary (East), MEA for foreign minister with copies sent to Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, For Secretary and Chairman of AEC, 5 July 1977, WII/504/3/77 Vol. III, MEA, Secret Nuclear Matters – Tarapur Plant, NAI.

⁵⁹ Subject: Next step on Pakistan reprocessing deal, cable 227260 from State Department to Embassy in Paris, 12 November 1978, in Brzezinski Material, Cables File-113-2-32-2, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, GA.

⁶⁰ Secret Borderau d’Envoi Direction D’Asie, No. 455/QA, “A/S: Affaires nucleaires: decisions du groupe interministeriel restraint en date du 7 novembre 1978,” 21 December 1978, Carton 2254, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Culture et relations culturelles, Questions atomiques, 1978 Jan.–1980 June, ADF.

⁶¹ Ibid.

⁶² “Note: A/S: Projet d’accord franco-indien sur le controle de l’uranium enrichi destine aux reacteurs APSARA et FBTR (Kalpakkam), No. 45/QA,” 24 January 1979, Carton 2254, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Culture et relations culturelles, Questions atomiques, 1978 Jan.–1980 June, ADF.

⁶³ NSC Memo for Ben Evans, Executive Secretary at CIA, “Enriched Uranium for India,” 24 January 1979, Secret/Sensitive, RAC, NLC-24-93-4-1-8, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, GA (JCPL).

⁶⁴ Telegram No. 523/24 from French Embassy in New Delhi to MAE in Paris, “Surregenerateur de Kalpakkam: Fourniture d’uranium enrichi,” 7 May 1979, Urgent, Signed by Ambassador Andre Ross, Carton 2254, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Culture et relations culturelles, Questions atomiques, 1978 Jan.–1980 June, ADF.

⁶⁵ Telegram 1248–49 from French Embassy in Washington DC to MAE in Paris, “Objet: Relations Americano-Indiennes dans le domaine nucleaire,” Signed by Pierre Boyer, Carton 2254, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Culture et relations culturelles, Questions atomiques, 1978 Jan.–1980 June, ADF. Carton 2254, Inde, Direction Asie-Oceanie, No. 15-11-5, Culture et relations culturelles, Questions atomiques, 1978 Jan.–1980 June, ADF.

⁶⁶ Secret Memo for the President from Secretary of State Edward Muskie, 3 September 1980, RAC, NLC-7-23-7-4-8, JCPL.

⁶⁷ Declaration conjointe de M. Valery Giscard d’Estaing et Mme Indira Gandhi sur la tension international lors de la visite officielle on Inde, New Delhi, 27 January 1980, http://discours.vie-publique.fr/notices/807002500.html (accessed November 5, 2018).

⁶⁸ On this subject see: Florent Pouponneau, “Les Changements De La Polique Française D’exportation Nucléaires (1974–1976): Un Triple Double Jeu,” Critique Internationale 58, no. 1 (2013): 95–116; and Or Rabinowitz and Jayita Sarkar, “‘It Isn’t Over Until the Fuel Cell Sings’: A Reassessment of U.S. and French Pledges of Nuclear Assistance in the 1970s,” Journal of Strategic Studies 41, no. 1–2 (2018): 275–300.

⁶⁹ On this subject see: Isabelle Anstey, “Negotiating Nuclear Control: The Zangger Committee and the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group in the 1970s,” The International History Review 40, no. 5 (2018): 975–95.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jayita Sarkar

Jayita Sarkar is an assistant professor at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies.