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US seals nuclear cooperation pact with India President George W. Bush on Thursday pledged to end India's pariah status in the global nuclear order after more than three decades of isolation by offering it access to the international market for nuclear fuel and technology. The successful conclusion of months of intense negotiations over the terms under which India would open up its civilian nuclear industry to international inspection provides Mr Bush with a potential foreign policy success at a difficult time in his presidency. "This was not an easy agreement for the prime minister [Manmohan Singh] or the American president to conclude, but it's necessary for our peoples and I look forward to working with the US Congress to change decades of law," Mr Bush said. The ground-breaking deal now faces a major hurdle in the US, where it needs the approval of Congress, and in the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group, an international body that regulates the transfer of nuclear technology. Non-proliferation hawks in the US Congress argue that legitimising India as a nuclear weapons power whilst it remains outside the NPT sets a dangerous precedent that will encourage other countries to develop weapons programmes. India, which has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has been in the nuclear doghouse since 1974 when it conducted a "peaceful nuclear explosion" which it followed in 1998 with an overt test of atomic weapons. "Short-term history shows that the US and India were divided and didn't have much of a relationship and there are laws on the books which reflect that," Mr Bush said at a joint press conference. "Our relations are changing dramatically." Mr Bush said he would tell Congress that helping India, whose economy is projected to become one of the five largest in the world by 2020, develop its civil nuclear programme would reduce demand for fossil fuels and lower petrol prices for US consumers. Twin bomb blasts near the US consulate in Karachi killed three people, including a US diplomat, and wounded dozens just before Mr Bush's joint press conference with Mr Singh. Mr Bush, who sent his condolences to the family of the US Foreign Service officer, as well to those of Pakistanis killed and wounded in the attacks, had been expected to fly straight to Islamabad on Friday night, but may now make a stop in Karachi. No details of the nuclear deal have been released. On Monday Mr Singh said India had offered to open 65 per cent of its installed nuclear capacity to inspection and insisted that the country's weapons programme would not be compromised. Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. © 2006 MSNBC.com By Jo Johnson in New Delhi Financial Times Updated: 8:12 a.m. ET March 2, 2006 FONTE: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11635157/ Voltar |
