US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar MenonCongress reached Agreement On U.S.-Indian Civil Nuclear Cooperation Bill today.
This is a bigger deal than it appears at first sight. It allows U.S. shipments of civilian nuclear fuel to India and changes decades of American anti-proliferation policy.
Today's agreement reconciles separate versions previously endorsed by the House of Representatives and the Senate, and clears th eway to bring the bill to a vote before sending it to President Bush to sign.
The bill allows U.S. civilian nuclear trade with India in exchange for Indian safeguards and inspections at 14 civilian nuclear plants; eight military plants would be off-limits. U.S. law curently bars nuclear trade with countries, such as India, that have not submitted to full international inspections and who have not signed the NPT.
"We now have the opportunity to achieve a geo-strategic realignment of India with the United States," Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos said. "This will be of immense importance to global security and economic development, while at the same time furthering our interests in limiting the spread of nuclear weapons."
6 comments:
this sounds like a bunch of baloney to me.
these people developed their nukes in secret, showing the mullahs of twenty years hench how to do it.
it also sounds like they are getting a pass on the NPT as well.
just one more ankle grabbing move by the US.
i just wonder if forty years from now Chelsea will be doing the same with some different stop'n'go clerk?
the indians, imo, are not our allies or friends. they take our jobs which the CEOs are happy to give them, to undercut first, the blue collar and now the white collar worker.
they are not our friend or ally.
why should we bend over?
give'em a T-bone for lunch.
rare.
Hello Louie.
I think you're confusing India with Pakistan.
Like Israel, India chose not to signthe NPT and go its own way..not surprising considering that they have borders with China and Pakistan.
I also don't think you can blame them for the outsourcing.Theyhave th eworkers and the hi-tech and US big business is simply doing what business does, thanks to the encouragement they get from the Feds.
India is the world's most populous democracy, and a significant part of what Mark Steyn calls `the Anglosphere'.
In view of what we're facing in the near future IMO, a strategic alliance like this is a major plus.
I think you're confusing India with Pakistan.
no, i think i got it right.
this gives a somewhat lengthy but accurate assessment. the money quote is from the "march 1960" entry by nehru. the remainder of your assessment of my post is accurate, but as i remember it, the india program was peaceful......right up to the point where they tested their first nuke.
and then everyone looked around at each other wondering where in the he-l did that come from.
sounds familiar.
for that matter some of the rhetoric from the indian leaders sounds rather......eery.
Respectfully, Louie, I don't think you can compare Nehru's anti-US India of the 1960's with the India of today.
Things began to change with China's war against India, the death of many of the old Congress Party `non-aligned nation' fixtures and the jihad directed against them from Pakistan.
That and the increasing commercial relations with the US.
ff
Hi,
Greeting from India!
Nice to see some positive comments from US bloggers on the nuke deal.
This is going to be a win-win deal for both our countries. You get to built the reactors and thus open up job opportunities in the US for Americans and we get about 20-25% of our future energy needs.
US needs strong allies like India if it wants to win the war on Islamist terror. Your major non-nato ally Pakistan is today the global hub of Islamist terroism. By destroying this hub only will the West save itself from Islamist terror. Paksitan is a pest to the whole world.
Lastly, on the outsourcing of US jobs to India: I would like to tell the Americans that it is simple capitalist economic principles that the Americans swear by that transfers American jobs to Indians and others.
Namasty, RS..I couldn't agree with you more,in every respect.
Perhaps if we Americans had been hit as consistently as India has by the jihadis, there would be more understanding of what natural allies India and the US are in this war.
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