Indo-US relations

Shaveta Sharma
There are three reference points as far as India’s nuclear policy was concerned. The first was the Peaceful Nuclear Explotion of 1974, second was the Pokhran II in 1998 and the third one was the signing of Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal in 2005 which were the highlights of all the three phases of cold war, post cold war and post post cold war respectively and all these events played their significant role in guiding and reshaping the bilateral relations between the two countries.
Since its independence, India incessantly has been advocating the cause of global and general disarmament and strict laws for non-proliferation. US had been neglecting the genuine security threat perceptions of India in the cold war era. The antagonistic Pakistan on the one side and unfaithful China on the other, made the regional environment  very much intimidating for India. To add to this, the growing  intent of the US to have rapproachement with communist China in late 1960s and early 1970s via the conduit of Pakistan as US could not afford to miss the opportunity to weaken USSR by cultivating closer ties with China.
This US-China-Pak axis was posing somber threats to India’s security which forced her to tilt in favour of USSR. India’s nuclear test of 1974 was also one of the key upshots of this insecurity syndrome which the former was suffering from the trio of US-China-Pak. In response to India’s nuclear explosion, NSG was formed with the purpose of surveillance and restricting  the export of technology and nuclear- related material to other countries. US pursued the strategy of pushing India into the non-proliferation regime by forcing her to sign the NPT as non-nuclear weapon state. On her part, India strongly rejected the proposal by terming it as discriminatory and unjust.
India vehemently criticized the two fold policy posture adopted by US on the nuclear issue as the latter was forcing the former to sign NPT but at the same time deliberately ignoring the nuclear advancements of Pakistan in 1980s as the latter was acting as US conduit for fulfilling the strategic objectives in Afghanistan.  With the end of Afghan war US decided not to follow the past strategy of being meek on Pakistan’s nuclear program and imposed sanctions on the latter under Pressler amendment in 1990. Under her own security compulsions India conducted nuclear test in 1998 and declared  herself a nuclear weapon state. US diplomacy failed to persuade Pak to not to follow the suit and consequently imposed many stern sanctions on both the regional rivals. After that to restrict the proliferation, maintain the stability and to minimize the nuclear damage has become the prime concern of US strategy in the South-Asian region. In the aftermath of 9/11 the prime focus of US has been shifted to war against terrorism. However Indo-US nuclear relations were transformed when US announced to engage India in the nuclear domain for peaceful purposes under the Indo-US nuclear deal. It was US which strongly criticised the nuclear tests of India in 1974 and 1998 but now the former is not only engaging India in nuclear domain but also lobbying robustly for the latter. Through its diplomatic brilliance US was able to get the clean waiver for India from IAEA and NSG and after being ratified from the Congress the deal could become a reality.
But Indo-US nuclear relations are not totally immune from divergences as there are some issues between both the partners. Firstly, there is the issue of ‘Nuclear Liability Bill’. Under it, India wants to be assured that in case any accident occurs due to defective quality of fuel supplied or technological faults, India could ask for appropriate compensation from the concerned fuel-supplier country. US is not very comfortable with this bill becoming law and on this issue the interests of both the partners are not identical.
Secondly, the lingering issue of NPT and CTBT is another point of deviation in their nuclear relations. US  wants India to sign the NPT and CTBT but India denied to be a part of any such treaty which is discriminated and unjust in nature and which tantamount her to be in a position of subjugation under the nuclear five.
Thirdly, although  there is a convergence of view between both India and US on the role of Pakistan in proliferating nuclear technology and know-how to many countries like North Korea, Iran, Libya etc and its possibility of being proliferated to the non-state actors (various terrorist groups) yet there is a wide gap in the approach to be applied to counter this menace between both the countries. India wants US to tackle the issue by taking stringent actions against Pakistan which the US has failed to take till now.
Fourthly, the ambitious nuclear posture adopted by Iran is irking US a lot and the latter is lobbying throughout the world to isolate Iran by all the possible channels.  But India does not seem to anticipate the views of US on this issue because the latter is having very cordial cultural, historic and diplomatic relations with Iran. To adopt the segregation policy viz-a-viz Iran is detrimental to India’s diplomatic and economic interests as India is importing 13-15 percent of her domestic consumption of crude oil from Iran and the latter is also one of the biggest importers of rice and other commodities from India. US is  also trying to press India for not advancing the India-Pakistan -Iran gas pipeline deal further – an insistence which India again refused to admit.
It is to be concluded that there are many debatable issues between both the partners nevertheless, both the countries are also deeply concerned in about the Global War On Terrorism, preventing the spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction both to the “Rouge states” and to non-state actors especially to the different  terrorists groups, stabilizing the Asian/South Asian region which is a dire concern for both because  if any part of Asia remains wobbly, the whole Asia would remain unstable. As regional stability of Asia and more particularly of South Asia has remained a focal point for both India and US, an unstable Asian/South Asian region would be detrimental for the national interests of both.
Another common area of concern for both India and US is the rising Islamic extremism and terrorism and they are making every effort to restrict the transfer of nuclear weapons and knowledge of the hands of the terrorists and radicalists. After years  long efforts, diplomatic exchanges and personal initiatives of the leadership now neither of the two partners would think of jeopardizing their newly found ‘strategic partnership’.
(The writer is a PhD scholar in the Deptt of Political Science, Jammu University)

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