Bush breaks long-standing policy, offers India nuclear-energy technology
President Bush has pledged to let India obtain nuclear reactors and fuel, potentially reversing a decades-long U.S. policy on limiting India’s access to nuclear technology and continuing the post-Cold War warming trend in U.S.-India relations. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hopes civil nukes will help India meet skyrocketing energy needs; he’s promised in turn to adhere to the highest international norms for nuclear programs, separating civil and weapons programs and maintaining a moratorium on nuclear-weapons testing. But as the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty bans transfer of nuke tech to non-signatories like India, some analysts worry that if Bush changes the game (and Congress and other nuclear nations sign off), all nonproliferation bets are off. “[T]here are other countries that … have far worse proliferation issues” than India, says one. “France, Russia, China, and other countries will want to play by the same rules for Iran, Pakistan, or Syria.”
