Newsday (New York)
Saturday, July 23, 2005 

Editorial: India belongs in the fold; U.S. cooperation on nukes is in best interest of both nations 

President George W. Bush's decision to extend nuclear cooperation to India, giving it greater access to state-of-the-art civilian technology, caught the world by surprise. But it's a deal that makes good strategic sense. It could bring long-term benefits to the two countries' relations and it would bode well for their conjoined influence in Asia. 

The deal, still to be approved by Congress and other nuclear powers, would lift a ban on civilian nuclear technology sales to India, which developed nuclear weapons in contravention of the international non-proliferation treaty. In return, India would allow international inspections and safeguards on its civilian nuclear program, halt all further nuclear weapons tests and agree not to sell its weapons technology to other nations. It's a good proposal that may ultimately result in India signing on to the non-proliferation treaty. Despite some downsides, it should be approved. 

But its significance, at least for the United States, goes far beyond the immediate nuclear issues at stake. It says much more about the Bush administration's geopolitical view of the evolution of Asia's great powers. Bush's eye is on boosting India's power and influence as a counterbalance to the rise of China as an an Asian superpower. He seeks India's cooperation in the global war on terrorism, of course, and wants to stabilize relations with India, the world's largest democracy, that have been often rocky in the past. 

With India's population expected to surpass China's within the next few decades, it would be of great advantage to U.S. foreign policy-makers to count on India as a valuable ally. It's a nation with which Americans share political and cultural values and whose population has a largely favorable impression of the United States, with more than one million Indians living here, and a good deal of "outsourced" U.S. work going back to India. The agreement may strain U.S. relations a bit with Pakistan, where Islamist radicals may well rail against it. But, overall, it's better to have India inside the tent of U.S. relations in Asia as a valuable friend than outside it.