THE SIGNIFICANCE OF the Indo-US nuclear deal

With the signing of the 123 agreement in 2005, Dr. Manmohan Singh and President George Bush laid the foundation for closer collaboration between India and the United States and opened up avenues for sharing of nuclear technology with India.

When President George Bush signed into law on October 9, the bill passed overwhelmingly by both the Houses, it was the start of the new chapter in India’s emergence as an emerging world power. Many ask why such a deal is so important for both the nations. The agreement, in the view of its authors, will redefine relations between the two countries often at odds during the cold war and build up India as a friendly counterweight to a rising China. India was in desperate need to have its nuclear isolation and what it considered to be the "nuclear apartheid" since its first nuclear test in 1974, ended. The pact has now ended the 34 years of isolation among nuclear powers.

Dr. Manmohan Singh said, "I do believe that if our concerns are addressed properly, the nuclear initiative will help our country to move forward to manage its energy situation in a manner that is consistent with our national goals of combating climate change through developing clean sources of energy."

For its share, the United States will gain access to a growing market for civilian nuclear technologies and materials that will help American businesses create more jobs for its people in the US. Under the terms of the deal, the United States will now be able to sell nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to India for peaceful energy. "The national security and economic future of the United States will be enhanced by a strong and enduring partnership with India," Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in the Senate debate. "With a well-educated overall middle class that is larger than the entire United States population, India can be an anchor of stability in Asia and an engine of economic growth."

According to a White House spokesman, the civil nuclear initiative is one part of a broad, multifaceted partnership that includes cooperation in agriculture, education, trade, investment, defence and democracy.

Washington now looked "to the US and Indian private sectors to take the lead in implementing the agreement and beginning cooperation." "The opportunities now available for US investment in India’s civil nuclear sector are enormous, and we encourage our private sector to take advantage of every opportunity," the spokesman added. Condoleezza Rice rightly said, "As much as the Civil Nuclear Agreement is a breakthrough, this is also a friendship that is based on values, a friendship that is based on ties, people-to-people ties, including the 80,000 or so Indian students who study in the United States. It is a relationship that is cultural. It is a relationship that goes very, very deep."

According to the United States-India Business Council, which promoted the deal, India is likely to spend as much as $175 billion over the next quarter century expanding its nuclear industry to cope with rising energy demands. Companies like General Electric, Westinghouse and Bechtel will now be able to compete for contracts in India. "This is one of those historic, important, tectonic shifts in relations with another country," said Ron Somers, the council’s president. "This is a country we need to be partnering with and I would argue will be shaping the destiny of the 21st century." Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a research organization in Washington, called the promise of big dollars and American jobs

However, experts say, it’s not only the US firms, but also several Indian firms that stand to gain from the nuclear deal, Moreover, in recent years, India has assumed the role of a large military power. Risen from its rivalry with its neighbor, Pakistan, many describe India as a growing military power countering the reach of China, especially in Asia. "India sees itself in a different light — not looking so much inward and looking at Pakistan, but globally," said William S. Cohen, secretary of defense in the Clinton administration. "It’s sending a signal that it’s going to be a big player." Reports say, India is buying armaments that major powers like the United States use to operate far from home: aircraft carriers, giant C-130J transport planes and airborne refueling tankers. "Ten years from now, India could be a real provider of security to all the ocean islands in the Indian Ocean," said Ashley J. Tellis, an Indian-born scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "India is slowly maturing into a conventional great power."

Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign minister, said recently:
"Naturally, a country of this size, a population of this size — we will be required to strengthen our security forces, modernize them, update them, upgrade our technology." The nuclear co-operation, especially with the United States, plays well into the scheme of things for India. A member of the elite nuclear club, a young nation with over a billion people and its fast growing economic and military power and closer collaboration with the United states and several other nations around the world, all leading to making India a world leader in the 21st century.

By Ajay Ghosh