US expert bats for Indo-US nuke deal

Washington, May 8 (UNI) Strongly urging the US Congress to endorse the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement, a US expert on national security issues, said dangerous consequences would follow if Congressmen reject the agreement or impose new conditions that could derail the deal.

Writing in the Washington Times here today Stanley A Weiss, who is founder-chairman of Business Executives for National Security, a nonpartisan organisation based in Washington said imperfect though it may be, the nuclear agreement now before the US Congress is like any dowry, turning it down risks spoiling the larger relationship.

'' Indeed, overlooked in the current debate are the dangerous consequences if Congress rejects the agreement or imposes new conditions that make it a deal-breaker for New Delhi,'' he said.

Cautioning the US lawmakers not to overlook the real issues in the current debate on the deal he said more than a technology deal, the Indians see it as being about trust. Failure to endorse the agreement would result in a ''total loss of trust'' that could contaminate the entire US-Indian political, economic and military relationship, including intelligence cooperation in the war on terrorism.

Comparing the US-India civilian nuclear deal to an ''arranged marriage'' between Washington and New Delhi, President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said both of them also agreed to a ''dowry long coveted by New Delhi, an historic civilian nuclear agreement that tacitly recognises India as the world's sixth nuclear state.'' Mr Weiss referred to an incident three years ago when ''a young Indian bride named Nisha Sharma became an international celebrity when, at the altar, she called off her wedding after the groom's family suddenly demanded a larger dowry than had been agreed upon.'' Similarly American lawmakers should take note, ''You go to the altar with the dowry you have, not the dowry you might want. Trying to renegotiate this nuclear deal could poison the US-Indian relationship for years to come. And rather than love, only mistrust and missed opportunities will follow,'' he asserted.

Regarding skepticism among lawmakers on the Iran-India relations, Mr Weiss said it should not worry the United States and the US Congress would be committing a ''historic blunder'' if it rejects the deal because of India-Iran ties.

''Given the consequences of failure, blocking the agreement because of India's limited economic, political and military ties with Iran, as some US lawmakers have threatened, would be an historic blunder. Cooperation between India and Iran, two ancient civilisations with deep cultural links, is natural and no threat to the United States,'' he noted.

He also pointed out that India voted twice with the United States at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) against Iran's nuclear program despite Iranian threats that doing so could endanger negotiations on a new pipeline to bring Iranian natural gas to India.

''It would be hard to imagine India taking similar risks in the future if Capitol Hill votes against India's nukes today,'' he added.

Perhaps the greatest damage of the deal's demise would be to the broader Asian power balance, according to Mr Weiss.

''Just as US officials implicitly acknowledge democratic India's potential role as counterweight to China, the deal's ruin could achieve the precise opposite, he noted.

New Delhi and Beijing pledged themselves last year to a new strategic partnership, and Moscow has pursued, without much success, greater Russian-Indian-Chinese cooperation. Failure of the US-India nuclear agreement would ''breathe a fresh dose of oxygen into the rapidly dying Moscow-New Delhi-Beijing triangle,'' he said quoting Krishna Rasgotra, the former Indian foreign secretary.

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