[Mb-civic] Our Opportunity With India - Condoleezza Rice - WashingtonPost Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Our Opportunity With India

By Condoleezza Rice
The WashingtonPost
Monday, March 13, 2006; A15

The week before last President Bush concluded a historic agreement on 
civilian nuclear cooperation with India, a rising democratic power in a 
dynamic Asia. This agreement is a strategic achievement: It will 
strengthen international security. It will enhance energy security and 
environmental protection. It will foster economic and technological 
development. And it will help transform the partnership between the 
world's oldest and the world's largest democracy.

First, our agreement with India will make our future more secure, by 
expanding the reach of the international nonproliferation regime. The 
International Atomic Energy Agency would gain access to India's civilian 
nuclear program that it currently does not have. Recognizing this, the 
IAEA's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, has joined leaders in France 
and the United Kingdom to welcome our agreement. He called it "a 
milestone, timely for ongoing efforts to consolidate the 
non-proliferation regime, combat nuclear terrorism and strengthen 
nuclear safety."

Our agreement with India is unique because India is unique. India is a 
democracy, where citizens of many ethnicities and faiths cooperate in 
peace and freedom. India's civilian government functions transparently 
and accountably. It is fighting terrorism and extremism, and it has a 
30-year record of responsible behavior on nonproliferation matters.

Aspiring proliferators such as North Korea or Iran may seek to draw 
connections between themselves and India, but their rhetoric rings 
hollow. Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism that has violated its own 
commitments and is defying the international community's efforts to 
contain its nuclear ambitions. North Korea, the least transparent 
country in the world, threatens its neighbors and proliferates weapons. 
There is simply no comparison between the Iranian or North Korean 
regimes and India.

The world has known for some time that India has nuclear weapons, but 
our agreement will not enhance its capacity to make more. Under the 
agreement, India will separate its civilian and military nuclear 
programs for the first time. It will place two-thirds of its existing 
reactors, and about 65 percent of its generating power, under permanent 
safeguards, with international verification -- again, for the first time 
ever. This same transparent oversight will also apply to all of India's 
future civilian reactors, both thermal and breeder. Our sale of nuclear 
material or technology would benefit only India's civilian reactors, 
which would also be eligible for international cooperation from the 
Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Second, our agreement is good for energy security. India, a nation of a 
billion people, has a massive appetite for energy to meet its growing 
development needs. Civilian nuclear energy will make it less reliant on 
unstable sources of oil and gas. Our agreement will allow India to 
contribute to and share in the advanced technology that is needed for 
the future development of nuclear energy. And because nuclear energy is 
cleaner than fossil fuels, our agreement will also benefit the 
environment. A threefold increase in Indian nuclear capacity by 2015 
would reduce India's projected annual CO2emissions by more than 170 
million tons, about the current total emissions of the Netherlands.

Third, our agreement is good for American jobs, because it opens the 
door to civilian nuclear trade and cooperation between our nations. 
India plans to import eight nuclear reactors by 2012. If U.S. companies 
win just two of those reactor contracts, it will mean thousands of new 
jobs for American workers. We plan to expand our civilian nuclear 
partnership to research and development, drawing on India's 
technological expertise to promote a global renaissance in safe and 
clean nuclear power.

Finally, our civilian nuclear agreement is an essential step toward our 
goal of transforming America's partnership with India. For too long 
during the past century, differences over domestic policies and 
international purposes kept India and the United States estranged. But 
with the end of the Cold War, the rise of the global economy and 
changing demographics in both of our countries, new opportunities have 
arisen for a partnership between our two great democracies. As President 
Bush said in New Delhi this month, "India in the 21st century is a 
natural partner of the United States because we are brothers in the 
cause of human liberty."

Under the president's leadership, we are beginning to realize the full 
promise of our relationship with India, in fields as diverse as 
agriculture and health, commerce and defense, science and technology, 
and education and exchange. Over 65,000 Americans live in India, 
attracted by its growing economy and the richness of its culture. There 
are more than 2 million people of Indian origin in the United States, 
many of whom are U.S. citizens. More Indians study in our universities 
than students from any other nation. Our civilian nuclear agreement is a 
critical contribution to the stronger, more enduring partnership that we 
are building.

We are consulting extensively with Congress as we seek to amend the laws 
needed to implement the agreement. This is an opportunity that should 
not be missed. Looking back decades from now, we will recognize this 
moment as the time when America invested the strategic capital needed to 
recast its relationship with India. As the nations of Asia continue 
their dramatic rise in a rapidly changing region, a thriving, democratic 
India will be a pillar of Asia's progress, shaping its development for 
decades. This is a future that America wants to share with India, and 
there is not a moment to lose.

The writer is Secretary of State.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200978.html?nav=hcmodule
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