NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the United States agreeing to a civil nuclear cooperation deal with India will be an act of "historic reconciliation."

Hoping that the deal would be clinched during the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush, Dr. Singh said: " ... That would be a great contribution of President Bush to ending India's isolation from the world nuclear order."

A grievance

"I mentioned to the President last time I met, `Mr. President, the people of India, particularly the thinking part of our population, our scientists, our technologists, have rightly or wrongly nursed this grievance against the United States.

"That the United States has joined with other countries to erect a system of controls which denies our country access to dual-use technologies to prevent us from leapfrogging in the race for social and economic development.

"And I said, `I appeal to you to look at India-U.S. nuclear cooperation in that grand setting.' I look upon it as an act of historic reconciliation," the Prime Minister said in an interview to an American television channel.

Concerns

Referring to a possible nuclear agreement, the Prime Minister said it was not about India's strategic programme. "What is [under] discussion is our civilian nuclear programme. And there are concerns. And we had agreed that we will have a credible separation between our strategic programme and the civilian programme. That, we are committed to ... "

When told that Mr. Bush had the Congress to deal with, Dr. Singh replied, "Well, we have also a Parliament. And our Parliament is also very sensitive about these issues. I have promised our Parliament that I will do nothing which will hurt India's strategic programme."

The Prime Minister said India was not in competition with China. "I had a very good discussion with the President — on this subject. And I think there was a complete unanimity of views. Both of our countries believe China is very important. The future growth of China — China's influence is bound to rise."

"And we all believe that we must remain engaged with China. We have differences with China with regard to the border issue. We are making a sincere effort to resolve — resolve those differences. And the President [Mr. Bush] told me that's precisely what we should do I think. He says the United States also wants to remain engaged with China."

"We are not part — are not going to be a part of any alliance against China. And I do believe that the present Chinese leadership wants to make a success of its modernisation. I don't believe the present leadership of China threatens India or, for that matter, other countries," he stated.

On the defence front, Dr. Singh said India would like to diversify sources of its weapons' purchases. "Also, we would like to have cooperative arrangements where some of these things, joint research ... joint production [happen with the U.S.]."

Asked if it was difficult to be a friend of the U.S. in 2006, the Prime Minister said: "Well, let me say that events in Iraq, events in Iran do create some anxieties, particularly among the Muslim population of our country. And I sincerely hope that the difficulties that are there in Iraq and Iran can be resolved, that Iraq will see a new era of hope in which its people will enjoy full sovereignty." "And also the problems with Iran ... can be resolved through dialogue ... through giving diplomacy a chance."

Left against ties

Asked who opposed closer ties between India and the U.S., the Prime Minister responded: "There are the Left parties of our coalition, they still regard the United States as a hegemonic power. But I think the new Indians of tomorrow, our young people, our businessmen, our scientists, our technologists, I think they are not held back by the Cold War thinking."

`Convince Pakistan'

Dr. Singh also hoped that the U.S. would use its influence to convince Pakistan that using terrorism as an instrument of State policy had no place in the world.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail