Nuclear India
Yesterday, the media's attention focused on the "nuclear option" the Senate has launched on Wall Street with its bailout plan. But lawmakers also ushered in a quieter nuclear breakthrough: overwhelming approval of a bill to let India engage in the global nuclear trade.
India has long been excluded from the nuclear club after angering the international community by testing a bomb more than 30 years ago.
But now that the Cold War has thawed, the new deal aims to capitalize on India's rapid economic growth. Multinational companies, including GE and Westinghouse, are hoping to strike deals for nuclear development. And the United States recently persuaded a 45-nation coalition called the Nuclear Suppliers Group to approve trade with India.
The Bush administration argues that the move will encourage transparency, as India has agreed to open civil nuclear reactors to outside inspection.
Opponents note that India has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty--a crucial pillar in the international regime governing nuclear development.
For now, the White House has promised to push for trade strictures for countries that have not signed the Treaty. Still, the lingering fear is that promoting India's nuclear capacity could escalate tensions in a region that's already overheating under the political spheres of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Already, the BBC reports, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has said he thinks Pakistan "would be justified to ask for a similar agreement and should be accommodated."
Critics say safeguarding the world from catastrophic destruction gets more complicated when nukes are seen as a prize in a game fraught with double standards. Former President Jimmy Carter wrote in a recent column:
"If India's unique demands are acceptable, why should other technologically advanced [Nonproliferation Treaty] signatories, such as Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Japan -- to say nothing of less responsible nations -- continue to restrain themselves?"
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