INDIA AND THE US

U.S.-INDIA NUCLEAR DEAL DRIFTS DANGEROUSLY

Simon Denyer and Rama Lakshmi

The Washington Post, July 15, 2011

NEW DELHI — Hailed as the centerpiece of a new partnership between the world’s two most populous democracies, the U.S.-India nuclear deal has drifted dangerously since it was signed in 2008, analysts and former negotiators from both countries say.

The risk now is that other countries, particularly Russia and France, might benefit from all the hard work that the United States put into the deal.

The landmark agreement was supposed to allow the sale of nuclear reactors and fuel to India, even though the country has nuclear weapons but has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Its advocates said it would bring tens of billions in business to the United States and create thousands of jobs, while also cementing a new partnership between the two nations to counter China’s rise.

The deal itself, symbolic of a new partnership between the two countries, is not in any political danger. But American companies have not yet sold any reactors or equipment to India. American nuclear fuel firms, which face no legal or policy hurdles, have also not begun selling to India.

Personally propelled by President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the deal overcame enormous opposition from the non-proliferation lobby in the United States and from Indians who said the conditions attached to the deal undermined the country’s sovereignty. But once the ink was dry and the hard work of implementation began, the momentum stalled.

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