NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday welcomed the India-U.S. joint statement on strategic partnership. It said the statement was a confirmation by the UPA Government of the continuing validity of the previous BJP-led NDA Government's strategic initiative of deepening, broadening and strengthening relations with the U.S.

In a statement here, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh said the joint statement also covered issues of economic prosperity; trade; innovation and knowledge economy; global safety and security; democracy and international challenges.

Natural ally

"The BJP, as the initiator of this process of strategic cooperation with the U.S. whom the then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee had termed India's `natural ally,' is gratified by this development," he said. This is the direction in which the BJP-NDA Government had set the entire policy; the March 2 joint announcement reaffirms the centrality of that policy, Mr. Singh said.

Surrender

Asserting that the only yardstick of objectively assessing, evaluating and commenting on the joint statement was India's national interest, the party said the UPA Government had surrendered on two important counts: Out of the total 22 nuclear power plants in existence or under construction less than six were placed under safeguards. The separation plan, reportedly drawn up by the Government, would result in two-thirds of the nuclear power plants being placed under IAEA safeguards. Clearly, this would result in a gap on the fissile material available for weapons purposes.

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