India and the US are looking ahead

US President George W Bush's announcement that the US and India would step up their cooperation in non-military nuclear activities, civilian space programmes, high-technology trade and missile defence constitutes a turning point in their relations. It follows from the November 2001 agreement between President Bush and Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee to enhance the strategic partnership between the two countries. With this, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which was a key problem in bilateral relations until recently, has definitely moved off the center-stage. In any case, there is greater understanding of each other's position as is borne out by the fact that the Bush administration has not pressed on this front except to generally urge stricter Indian controls over exports of materials and technology that could be used for weapons of mass destruction. Similarly, India did not respond negatively to President Bush unveiling the controversial missile defence system.

Until recently what had been blocking Indo-US "strategic partnership” was the 1998 Pokharan nuclear explosions. These seem to be out of the way. While the US clarifies that there is no change in this position, a better understanding of the Indian stand is clearly discernible in Mr Bush's announcement. India is committed to develop "a minimum credible deterrent” force to meet the nuclear threat perceived from China and Pakistan. In terms of nuclear doctrine, India has declared that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons but will employ them only in response to a nuclear attack — and never against a non-nuclear nation. The shared democratic values and the concern over global terrorism and weapons of mass destruction also help in bringing the two countries closer.

All this does not mean that India accepts the concept of a unipolar world in its entirety. In fact, it prefers a multipolar world in which India will be one of the main poles. In spite of this contradiction, the two countries have found ways to work together as denoted by Mr Bush's announcement. Indian science and technology establishments can now look forward to strengthening their technical and knowledge base through the window of opportunities that President Bush and Prime Minister Vajpayee have opened to them. The US stands to gain from enhanced confidence in India and its competence in the field of science, technology and space research.