By Amitai Etzioni

February 13, 2015

"The American media is gushing about improvements to the United States-India relationship in the wake of President Barack Obama's January visit to India. Among the achievements stemming from the visit is what the media had called a "breakthrough" that paved the way for implementing the two nations' civilian nuclear cooperation deal. However, examining the reasons why this deal was first struck, its components, and its side effects suggests that it is a cause more for concern than for celebration.

The U.S. long considered India to be the leader of the non-aligned camp and held that it was tilting toward the USSR and, later, toward Russia. India purchased most of its weapons from Russia, and it had a pseudo-socialist economic regime. The U.S. tilted toward Pakistan throughout the Cold War and in the years that followed. However, following the rise of China, the George W. Bush administration decided to lure India into the West’s camp and draw on it to help contain China. Bush therefore offered India civil nuclear technology and access to uranium, the fuel it needed for nuclear power reactors. The Indian government agreed to sign a 123 Agreement (or the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement), but the deal ran into considerable opposition within India. Hence the resulting impasse, which Obama has now helped resolve."

Read more:
http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/the-darker-side-of-the-u-s-india-nuclear-deal/

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