Key powers hail nuke deal

BUSH IN INDIA

Pact will ensure regional security and ensure strategic parity with China, Bush may tell Congress.

With major world powers including some countries of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) like Australia, France, Britain and Japan endorsing the Indo-US nuclear deal, India's nuclear isolation seems to be nearing an end.

Now, the US Congress and the NSG are the two stumbling blocks to the deal taking a concrete shape.

Although US President George W Bush is facing criticism from some quarters back home, he is likely to get the approval of the US Congress on the plea that realisation of India's strategic potential can ensure regional security and strategic parity with China.

Though it would be difficult to convince the NSG, which had been vehemently opposed to any nuclear technology transfer to a non-NPT signatory, its most vocal member had been the US itself. Also, given the response of other key NSG members, it may not be difficult for Bush to get a seal of approval.

Reacting to the deal, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said it would be a "net gain for the non-proliferation regime".

French President Jacques Chirac said it marked progress for nuclear non-proliferation controls and efforts to curb global warming. Describing India "a responsible power", he said it was "indispensable" to ensure that the country had access to civilian nuclear technology and enable it to meet "its immense energy needs while limiting emission of greenhouse gases".

Japan has also endorsed the deal. "It should be meaningful that India and the US held dialogue and agreed on various areas as India, the US and Japan share the values of freedom, democracy, basic human rights and the rule of law," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary and government spokesman Shinzo Abe said.

He added that Japan understood India's strategic importance and the need for meeting its energy demand. Abe said it would be "wrong" to compare Indian nuclear programme with North Korea's considering that the latter was "suspected of violating the 1994 agreement" and "the issue of its nuclear (ambitions) has since posed a grave concern to the international community".

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said, "We've considered very carefully over the last few months the American proposal for this agreement that President Bush has signed with the Indians, and our view is that it's a good step forward in what's been a difficult situation." He, however, ruled out lifting the ban on uranium exports to India.

China reacted cautiously, hoping the deal would meet the non-proliferation regime's parameters. It sought early accession to the NPT by "non-signatory" nations.

Pakistan said it had "no objection" to the agreement but sought a similar deal with Washington. "We have no objection. This is a deal between India and the United States," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.