U.S. India deal to go ahead..

This is from the Times(UK)
This is just an excerpt from the article:

"The decision is a nonproliferation disaster of historic proportions that will produce harm for decades to come," said Daryl Kimball, who heads the Washington-based Arms Control Association.
"Given India's history of violating its peaceful nuclear use agreements to build nuclear weapons, India's promises provide little confidence, especially if the consequences of noncompliance are not made clear by India's future potential nuclear supplier states," he said in a statement.
The waiver was also criticised in India, where opposition parties said it would restrict the country's military options and allow the United States too much control over Indian foreign policy.
When the NSG began its negotiations on Thursday, more than a dozen nations, including China and Japan, sought to block the waiver but their numbers soon dwindled to just three nations – Austria, Ireland and New Zealand.
They finally gave in after India pledged on Friday to support global non-proliferation efforts and not to share sensitive nuclear technology with other countries. The International Atomic Energy Agency signed off on the India-US nuclear deal last month.
Now, the Bush administration has to scramble to get approval from Congress in the few weeks remaining before the presidential election. ....../.......


It is interesting that China and Japan were convinced to give up their attempts to block the waiver when India agreed to support non-proliferation efforts etc. The whole deal shows the absolute hypocrisy of the US re proliferation. India did not sign up to non-proliferation and made the bomb in the face of much global criticism but now since relations with the U.S. have warmed it is given nuclear technology. Of course this is a great opening for profit selling the technology and uranium to India. Meanwhile Pakistan is yelping away about the deal while the U.S. is trying to shut it up with more military aid to the Pakistan Air Force. More profits for manufacturers.
Here is what Pakistan had to say:
Pakistan warned the international community yesterday that a deal allowing India to import US atomic fuel and technology could accelerate a nuclear arms race between Delhi and Islamabad.
The warning was made in a letter addressed to more than 60 nations as the Indian Government, having survived a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, dispatched diplomats to clear the deal with international regulators.
Later, in a concession to Islamabad, the United States said that it planned to shift $230 million (£116 million) in aid to Pakistan away from counter-terrorism to upgrading its F16 fighter jets seen as crucial for maintaining military parity with India. That announcement came four days before Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s new Prime Minister, is due to meet President Bush at the White House for talks on co-operation in combating Islamic extremists.
Pakistan is a key US ally in the War .............

U.S. India nuclear deal.

This is from AP through Yahoo. I was not aware that this deal fell victim to a shortened U.S. legislative calendar. This is just a snippet from a longer article.


Bush's administration also offered India novel cooperation in developing civilian nuclear energy that critics say would let India build up its nuclear arsenal and spoil global efforts to stop the spread of atomic weapons. The deal survived what had seemed fatal opposition in India only to fall victim to the election-shortened U.S. legislative calendar.........

This dealmaking with India also threatens the possibility of any close alliance with Pakistan. Indeed the deal will fire up the conflict between Pakistan and India. Perhaps the U.S. has deliberately chosen India as a new ally in the area as a counterweight to Pakistan and China as well. It is a dangerous gambit. Internal conflict in India may also increase since powerful parties opposed the deal.

Although it may be possible for a new U.S. administration to repudiate the disastrous Bush policy," of case-by-case dealmaking, "a tremendous amount of damage will already have been done," said William C. Potter, nonproliferation director at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He said the India deal is the worst of the three.