Why India got a pass with new nuke deal

Kelly O'Donnell White House Correspondent • Profile

NEW DELHI, India — President Bush on Thursday announced what is being called a “landmark” nuclear deal with India; meanwhile, a suicide attack in Pakistan, the next stop on his tour, killed four, including a U.S. diplomat.

NBC News White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell reports on the significance of the nuclear deal, India’s “unique” relationship with the U.S., and why many in India are miffed by what they see as the president's lack of chivalry in neglecting to take his wife, Laura, to the nation's most famous monument to love, the Taj Mahal.

What is the significance of the nuclear deal between the U.S. and India that President Bush and India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced on Thursday?  
U.S. officials say they have been working on this for eight months and finally hammered out the final agreement this morning just before Bush and Singh appeared. It is the first time that this kind of an agreement has been reached.

What it does is allow India to get some of the American knowledge about the science of nuclear energy and fuel, so that India can expand its civilian nuclear capacity — primarily for electricity. India has a very limited capacity of electricity, but a huge demand for it because of their growing economy.

The U.S. is pleased that, in exchange, India is allowing for international inspections of the majority of its nuclear sites, something that India has never agreed to do in its 30 years as a nuclear power.

India will separate its civilian and military nuclear program. The U.S. says that this gives greater transparency and that it is a benefit to both countries. It will also open up trade to U.S. companies that want to do business in the area of selling nuclear equipment and technology to India.

There are critics who say that the deal is not good for India because India is giving up some of its control by allowing an international group to come in and see what its doing. But the U.S. believes that India has been in too much isolation for all of these years, and that’s why they are happy about this.

What about India’s non-compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty?
India has never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. There is concern for this deal because it demands the question: What about other countries like North Korea and Iran that also want to expand their nuclear power?  

The U.S. says that India, as a nuclear power, has never sold its nuclear knowledge to other countries. It has never done anything that the U.S. thinks is harmful.

To make this deal happen U.S. law would have to change, because the U.S. is not permitted to sell nuclear knowledge to a county that does not participate in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The U.S. would do this for India because they believe that India has a unique role in the world and is very different from North Korea or Iran.

Is the U.S. trying to take advantage of that “unique role” that they see for India as sort of a counterweight to China’s growing economic and political influence? Was this trip by Bush sort of a way to court that “unique role?”
In many ways, the answer to that is, yes. The U.S. views India as significant because it is the largest democracy in the world. It is a country that has many religions that are coexisting in a peaceful way and it’s got this booming economy. It’s number-one trading partner is the U.S.

So in a lot of ways, what’s happening in India is in step with what the U.S. believes should be happening in the rest of the world. So, helping India to grow, both economically and in its nuclear capacity for energy, is something that the U.S. believes in. 

It also follows with the president’s view that we have to explore alternative sources of energy. So, for example if India’s need for fossil fuels goes down, because they can use more nuclear energy to generate power, than it puts less strain on the entire global market. And that’s something that Bush believes could even help American consumers.

China, one of India’s neighbors, is also a huge force militarily and in terms of economic power. It has a much more contentious relationship with the U.S. So, by having more positive relationships with India, it certainly helps balance in this part of the world.

Of course, Pakistan, being the other neighbor, is an important country in the war on terror. It is a country where a lot of terrorism is coming out of, but it is also a country where President Musharaff is in many ways considered helpful to President Bush.

So, India is unique for all of those reasons, according to U.S. officials. So, they are using words like “landmark” and “historic” in reference to this nuclear deal. 

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