US, India to cooperate even if nuclear deal falters - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If the United States and India fail to resolve differences over a civilian nuclear deal when President George W. Bush visits New Delhi this week, cooperation between the two nations will still continue in many other areas, officials and experts said on Monday.

ADVERTISEMENT

The nuclear deal, agreed in principle last July, would give India access to U.S. civilian nuclear technology and experts say New Delhi views this a litmus test of improving U.S.-India ties.

But the two sides are at odds over a plan to separate India's civilian and military facilities, subjecting civilian sites to international inspections while the military sites remain off-limits.

The pressure is on to reach a deal by the time Bush arrives in New Delhi, but a formula outlined by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh falls short of Bush's stated criteria.

"The Indians are holding fast to a position that is inconsistent with stated U.S. objectives" for an agreement that is credible, transparent and defensible, Robert Einhorn, a U.S. former non-proliferation official, told Reuters.

Washington's aim is to prevent U.S. and other foreign technology from being used in India's nuclear weapons program.

Singh told parliament his government's proposal would put nuclear reactors that generate about 65 percent of atomic power under international scrutiny. But India would not accept such safeguards on its experimental fast-breeder reactor program, a major sticking point in negotiations.

Einhorn said this shows that "instead of leaving themselves with the capacity to produce 6-10 bombs a year, the Indians will have instead a capacity to produce close to 50 bombs a year if they choose to do it."

Robert Blackwill, a former U.S. ambassador to India who is India's U.S. lobbyist, said if there is no agreement by the summit, "it would have a very negative effect on the India elite and the Indian people for years."

Michael Green, Bush's former Asia adviser, said he was "more optimistic ... about ...the sustainability of this (U.S.-India) relationship, with or without the nuclear deal."

Although a delayed nuclear deal could slow improvement in U.S.-India ties, experts said the two countries are involved at so many other levels, including in defense and business, that Bush's vision of a "strategic partnership" would continue.

Defense ties are "the unstated foundation of U.S.-Indian relations" and will expand substantially over time, former Pentagon official Kurt Campbell said recently.

U.S. and Indian military have accelerated training exercises in the Asia-Pacific region and U.S. companies are now competing to sell India advanced jet fighters, he said.

Blackwill said India's modernization also involves acquiring four aircraft carriers. He stressed the value of ties with India's million-man army, the most experienced in combat after the United States and Britain.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Edward Markey (news, bio, voting record), a Massachusetts Democrat, said he was gathering support for a congressional resolution opposing the nuclear deal.

"Members of Congress are only beginning to understand what the ramifications are for the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty," he told a news conference.

Supplying nuclear fuel to countries like India that have not signed the treaty "derails the delicate balance that has been established between nuclear nations and destroys our credibility when insisting that other nations continue to follow this important nonproliferation policy," Markey said.