Benefits outweigh risks in nuclear deal with India: US daily

WASHINGTON: As India and the United States announced the formalisation of the civilian nuclear agreement, a leading daily has said that Washington is betting that the benefits to the US and the world through a strategic partnership outweighs the risks to the non-proliferation regime.

'The Washington Post' in its lead editorial on Sunday has also called on India to focus on what it can do for this strategic partnership and that this partnership is indeed a 'two way' street.

"In large part, modern US nuclear non-proliferation policy began with India. New Delhi received US aid under the 'Atoms for Peace' programme of the early Cold War era, only to lose its US fuel supply because India which had refused to sign the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), exploded a nuclear 'device' in 1974."

"Decades of US non-cooperation with India's civilian atomic energy programme were intended to teach India, and the world, a lesson: You will not prosper if you go nuclear outside the system of international safeguards," the Post said in its editorial titled 'Bet on India'.

"Friday marked another step toward the end of that policy, also with India. The Bush administration and New Delhi announced the principles by which the United States will resume sales of civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India, as promised by President Bush in July 2005," it added.

"The fineprint of the agreement, which must still be approved by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group and by Congress, has not yet been released. But the big picture is clear: The administration is betting that the benefits to the United States and the world of a 'strategic partnership' with India outweighing the risks of a giant exception to the old rules of the nonproliferation game," the newspaper said.

"There are good reasons to make the bet. India is a booming democracy of more than one billion people, clearly destined to play a growing role on the world stage. It can help the United States as a trading partner and as a strategic counterweight to China and Islamic extremists."

"If India uses more nuclear energy, it will emit less greenhouse gas. Perhaps most important, India has developed its own nuclear arsenal without selling materials or know-how to other potentially dangerous states. This is more than can be said for Pakistan, home of the notorious AQ Khan nuclear network," the newspaper said.