Former US envoys back N-deal

As the US House of Representatives gets ready to take up for debating and voting on the Indo-US nuclear deal, two former American envoys to India have said the finalisation of the pact would catalyse alignment of the two great democracies.

Voting on the issue of civilian nuclear energy cooperation with India is a vote in the right side of history, for non-proliferation and in American supreme national interests, Thomas Pickering and Frank Wisner wrote in The Washington Times.

"When the House of Representatives votes on civil nuclear cooperation with India, President (George W) Bush, marching hand-in-hand with Congress, will be a step closer to a foreign policy trophy commensurable with Nixon's opening to China: a flourishing strategic partnership with India.

"Cementing this partnership would overcome decades of unrealistic and futile attempts to force India to abandon its nuclear arsenal," they said.

The former envoys' remarks have been timed to coincide with the House vote later on Wednesday.

The terms of the legislation have been scrupulously crafted in a collaborative endeavour between the executive and legislative branches to answer non-proliferation concerns, among other issues, Pickering and Wisner said.

"Civil nuclear cooperation with India would catalyse alignment of the two great democracies for the 21st century," they said.

Both Pickering and Wisner have been among the major supporters of the civilian nuclear energy agreement and urging the passage of relevant legislations in the House and in the Senate for quite some time now.

"Virtually every member of Congress understands the centrality of India to US national security interests. India appreciates the horror of international terrorism because it has suffered on a scale reminiscent of September 11, 2001: hundreds of casualties recently in Mumbai from bombs planted on commuter trains; an attack on India's Parliament; and recurrent horrors in Kashmir," Pickering and Wisner noted.

The US-India strategic partnership, they said "has been frustrated for more than 30 years by a rigid statutory prohibition on sharing civil nuclear technology with India, whereas sharing is permitted with China and other less friendly or responsible nations."

The pending legislation would pluck the "cinder in the eye" of Indo-US ties on terms eminently fair to both, they said.

"Contrary to detractors, the prospective US-India civil nuclear cooperation has not diminished international opposition to the nuclear adventurism of Iran or North Korea.

It has not provoked any nation to consider withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, because the legislation harmonises with its terms and objectives. It has not ignited an arms race in South Asia," the former envoys said.

"By any sensible non-proliferation measure, the legislation for civil nuclear cooperation with India will make the world safer. India's already commendable export control record would further improve. It has not proliferated to third countries, unlike the (Pakistani scientist) A Q Khan network.

"Its indigenous development of nuclear weapons was consistent with its international obligations...," they said.

"And nuclear assistance to India's civilian sector will not 'free up' indigenous uranium to boost its military arsenal because India's uranium reserves are enough for both programmes, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told Congress," Pickering and Wisner concluded.