President Bush signs bill paving way to nuclear sales to India

President Bush achieved one of the key foreign policy goals of his second term today: He signed legislation paving the way to a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India.

That may sound uncontroversial. But it turns upside down three decades of U.S. efforts to restrict nuclear work in India after it exploded a nuclear weapon. On the other hand, the legislation opens up the prospect of American access to a multibillion-dollar nuclear business in India.

Bush's success in squeezing the legislation out of Congress in its final days reflected, once again, the ability of a lame-duck president with approval ratings below 30% and facing a hostile House and Senate to nonetheless achieve some top priorities.

Sounding like Bill Clinton at his ...

... most persuasive, Bush used some less-than-formal language at the signing ceremony in the White House East Room.

"It's a big deal," he said.

The legislation overturns a ban on nuclear trade that went into effect after India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974.

The president said that as a result of the agreement, India would be able "to count on a reliable fuel supply for its civilian reactors" and reduce its use of fossil fuels. The United States, he said, would "gain access to a growing market for civilian nuclear technologies and materials," helping create American jobs.

Reuters reported: "The India-U.S. deal could open up around $27 billion in investment in 18 to 20 nuclear plants in India over the next 15 years, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry."

But there's a flip side:

Leonor Tomero, director of non-proliferation at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said the Bush administration "caved to Indian demands ... dangerously undermining non-proliferation" concerns.

She said:

The administration not only failed to protect U.S. interests and heed congressional conditions, but set up a framework that will allow India and other countries, including France and Russia, to reap the benefits of engaging in nuclear trade without any conditions.

In other words, critics worry that the pact could open the way to a nuclear arms race in Asia.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee are expected to sign the actual agreement Friday.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press

Comments

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Nuclear arms race in asia is good. we need to counter an expansionist china. better india check them than us.