Containing opponents is better than confronting them:

Bush supports India in face of China

Al Wafd, p.8, (11-3-2006)

By: Hind Selim

When you are unable to face your opponent, you have no choice but to ally with him. This was US president Bush’s policy when he recognised India as a world nuclear power through India-US nuclear cooperation agreement he signed with the Indian PM Manmohan Singh. According to the agreement, the US will provide India with nuclear technology for peaceful purposes in return for New Delhi’s commitment to separate its civilian nuclear facilities from its military ones that civilian facilities may be subjected to international inspection. It means that military nuclear facilities in India will continue producing nuclear weapons with no inspection at all, specially as it is India which will determine its civilian nuclear facilities among its 22 nuclear facilities.

India will finish this task by 2014. Hence, India will have enough time to separate its nuclear facilities in favour of its interests and its nuclear activities. The agreement also binds the US to make contacts with nuclear countries to convince them of providing India with nuclear technology. This will end the isolation imposed on India for 30 years, which prevented the nuclear countries from giving India access to nuclear technology. The agreement asserts Washington’s desire to make of India a world major power. India-US nuclear agreement is considered an unprecedented event. For the first time in history of international relations, a country outside the nuclear club is recognized as a nuclear country. Moreover, the US volunteered to help it in spite of the long enmity between the two countries and Washington’s past efforts for preventing India from confronting its nuclear activities. In addition, the agreement contradicts the NPT which requires any country seeking to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes to sign the agreement. However, India definitely refuses to sign the agreement although it has nuclear weapons as everybody knows.

During her visit to India last March, US Foreign Secretary Condoleezza Rice declared that her country aims at helping India to become a major power in the 21^st century.

US Interests

The US keenness on enhancing its relations with India is attributed to its desire to have a strategic ally in Asia to balance the power of its major rival China, specially as India’s current status qualifies it to face China. India is the second fastest growing economy in the world. Studies show that India is expected to become the world’s third largest economy, after the US and China, within the next 25 years. At the same time, Washington cannot go on with its deterrence policy towards New Delhi in view of its failure to stop the Indian nuclear activities and its bad need to maintain its relations with India which have notably and considerably grown over the recent years. India has become US largest trade partner and the trading exchange between the two countries during the past year reached about $ 27 billion up from $ 5.5 billion during 1999. The US is considered the largest foreign investor in India. Washington allocates about 14% of its business entry visas to Indian IT graduates as they have played an important role in the US IT revolution since the 1990s. The number of Indians residing in the US is estimated at about 2 million people. The Indian community in the US is among the most active ones. Statistics asserts that one of every 10 Indians living in the US is a millionaire. US Institute of Statistics admitted that Indians living in the US are more educated and wealthier than common US citizens.

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