The Indo-US Nuclear Deal-A Decade After

Abstract

On 18 July 2005, our former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and former President of USA, George Bush, had signed a historic Joint Statement on future strategic partnership between the two countries that included economic, energy and strategic components. In the Joint Statement, USA not only recognized India as a state with advanced nuclear technology, but also committed to achieve full civil nuclear energy cooperation with India. The genesis of the Joint Statement was a dialogue begun earlier in January 2004 between India and USA, ‘Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP)’, when the two countries agreed to negotiate and expand cooperation in the three areas that also included civilian nuclear activities. The Joint Statement was followed by a formal Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, signed by the same two dignitaries on 2 March 2006 in New Delhi. While these were presented as natural steps in the direction of facilitating high-technology trade, there was considerable skepticism amongst us. I was part of the Indian delegation accompanying the Prime Minister to the US and had an opportunity to witness from close quarters some of the hectic parleys preceding the signing of the Joint Statement. How can one forget that for a large part of the 60 years of independent India, USA has not been our great ally? How can one also forget the US-led technology denial regime following the 1974 Pokhran Peaceful Nuclear Experiment by India? The NSSP and the Joint Statement therefore came as a surprise to many of us. The foremost question in everyone’s mind was ‘What is there in it for us and what is there in it for the US?’