Nuclear deal only one aspect of India-US ties: envoy
Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), March 18, 2006

Honolulu: Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen has termed critics of the India-US nuclear agreement as being "trapped in a mindset of the past", while assuring that New Delhi will never undermine the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"We are not in violation of the NPT because we have never signed it, nor will we. But we will never try to undermine the NPT either," the envoy to the US said in a speech at the East-West Center here Thursday.

Responding to criticism that the recently signed Indo-US nuclear agreement undercut the NPT, Sen said the only people surprised by the deal were those still "trapped in a mindset of the past".

India and the US formalised the nuclear deal during President George W. Bush's trip to New Delhi earlier this month. The agreement will allow India access to previously barred nuclear fuel and technology.

Sen stressed throughout his talk that the new mindset should be one of optimism. A good part of that optimism was due to recent changes in policy, he said. "None as dramatic as the development of relations with the US," the ambassador added.
Casting the new Washington-New Delhi ties in an optimistic light, Sen said: "I don't see any clouds on the horizon." 

He characterised Bush's visit to India and the positive outcome that resulted as a "fundamental reaffirmation of (our) relationship with the US.

The agreements in New Delhi were "good for both countries," Sen claimed, adding that the closer relationship between the two nations "makes the world safer."
He also sought to dispel the view that has been put forth by many analysts that the New Delhi accords were aimed at containing India's large neighbour to the north, China. 
Sen denied this and said: "The strategic partnership (with the US) is not aimed against any country, including China."

The Indian envoy did admit that New Delhi has "some outstanding territorial issues with China and some difference in the area of proliferation," but he was quick to add: "We don't like to talk of India or China, rather India and China." 

Sen also stressed in his 45-minute address that the new relationship between the US and India went far beyond the nuclear element that has claimed most of the media attention. 

"The partnership has brought tangible benefits to both countries," Sen said, adding: "We have entered into a new framework of cooperation."

The ambassador went on to name numerous fields that would benefit from the closer cooperation between the two nations. Included were such areas as joint military exercises, cyber security, procurement, co-production, energy, aerospace, and increased trade. 
Trade, now totaling $40 billion a year, should double in the next few years, said Sen.
Addressing the touchy subject of outsourcing, he noted that the value of goods and services purchased by India from the US far outpaced the economic value of some American jobs going to his country.