EDITORIAL
The announcement over the weekend by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that he was accepting Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's offer to help build a nuclear reactor, is worrying for several reasons, not least because it is sure to exacerbate existing political tensions.
The relationship between Mr Chavez and Washington, which has been openly hostile for years, reached a new low last month when Mr Chavez evicted the US ambassador from Caracas in sympathy for a similar move by Bolivian President Evo Morales, who accused the US consulate of fomenting unrest in his country.
Likewise, it comes at a time when relations between the United States and Russia have been spiralling rapidly downward since the Russian invasion of Georgia. The US views Russian expansion into South America in much the same way that Russia views the expansion of the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation into its former satellite states.
There has been no official comment from Washington on the reported deal, but when it comes it is sure to be sour. The situation has a very obvious potential to turn into another standoff like the one over Iran's nuclear programme. Like Iran, Venezuela is giving assurances that its nuclear intentions are purely for civilian purposes.
"Brazil has various nuclear reactors, so does Argentina. We will have ours," said Mr Chavez.
In fact Venezuela, like Iran, has an absolute right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to pursue nuclear technology. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has strict procedures to monitor spent nuclear reactor fuel which can be used to manufacture weapons. The fact remains, however, that the presence of a nuclear programme of any sort leaves open the possibility of diverting the spent fuel for military purposes, as was done by India and Israel. It is well known that Mr Chavez considers the US a direct threat and there is little in his temperament to suggest that he would baulk at developing nuclear weapons if he thought he could get away with it. Suspicions of Venezuela's nuclear ambitions are also bound to increase due to the fact that the country is flush with oil reserves.
One has to wonder if the nuclear agreement and the strengthening military alliance between Russia and Venezuela have not been undertaken primarily to raise the ire of the United States. According to a Kremlin source, Russia and Venezuela have signed 12 arms contracts worth a total of $4.4 billion in the last two years, and last month Russia sent a heavily armed nuclear vessel to Venezuela for a joint military exercise. This type of provocation is foolhardy, although it has to be viewed in the context of a Nato expansion into Eastern Europe that many see as unnecessary and also provocative.
Disagreements over which nations should be allowed to pursue nuclear power may become more common in the coming years, because the world is poised to embark on a frenzy of nuclear reactor construction.
The nuclear lobby - in the US, Britain, Russia, China, etc - is advancing the idea that nuclear power is the best answer for global warming. There are many arguments against this conclusion, including the astronomical cost of reactor construction, the potential for accidents and sabotage, and the seemingly insurmountable problem of safely storing the waste for thousands of years.
To this list should be added the fear that proliferation of civilian as well as military nuclear power has a high potential to increase political tensions in a world which, unfortunately, seems to be growing more polarised.
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