Bloomberg.com have reported further detail on the nuclear agreement between the USA and India, whats interesting is Bush has said that both countries are in the fight againt terrorism TOGETHER.

Sure looks like a bit of… “we will give you assisatance with your civil nuclear capabillities and you back our actions in Iraq and Afganistan, give us any intelligence on terrorists and hand any terrorists over”

March 3 (Bloomberg) — U.S. President George W. Bush said America is entering a new phase of its partnership with India in a speech concluding his three-day trip to the country.

“For many years, the U.S. and India were kept apart by the rivalries that divided the world, that’s changed,” Bush said in a speech in New Delhi today. “The U.S. and India, separated by half the globe, are closer than ever before.”

The two nations reached an agreement yesterday under which India will be allowed to develop civilian nuclear power capabilities, an accord that capped months of negotiations and marked the highlight of Bush’s first-ever trip to India. Bush is scheduled to visit Pakistan tomorrow.

In his speech, Bush said that the U.S. and India will also work to reduce trade barriers and increase commerce between the two nations. India, the world’s largest democracy, has a middle class of 300 million people, which Bush said provides an ample export market for the world’s most prosperous country.

“America welcomes India’s economic rise because we understand that as other nations prosper it creates more opportunities for us all,” Bush said in a speech delivered at the Purana Qila, or Old Fort, which dates to the 16th century. “Free and fair trade is good for India, it’s good for America and it is good for the world.”

Bush called India an ally in the fight against terrorism that serves as an example for the developing world and the Middle East of how a pluralist society rooted in democracy can live in peace.

`Together’

“America and India are in this war together and we will win this war together,” Bush said.

The nuclear accord opens a new chapter in U.S.-India relations. Bush has to sell the agreement to the U.S. Congress and India must work with the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, to allow inspections of most of its nuclear facilities.

The South Asian country has to also convince the 44-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group that the agreement poses no threat to restrictions on the transfer of nuclear technology.

The U.S. had cut off nuclear cooperation after India tested its first atomic bomb in 1974. India needs nuclear power technology to feed the energy demands of a booming economy.

The agreement could also create a political dilemma for Bush. Pakistan, which like India possesses nuclear weapons and hasn’t allowed independent nuclear inspections, said it too should be allowed to develop civil nuclear power capabilities.

Safeguards

The IAEA, the nuclear-inspection arm of the United Nations, reacted favorably to the accord, particularly the news that India would seek an inspection agreement with the agency.

A senior U.S. official told reporters in New Delhi that India has agreed to allow inspections at 14 of its 22 nuclear facilities. The key to the agreement was India agreeing to a specific plan to separate civilian and military technologies.

Commerce is a factor in the nuclear accord and other agreements between the two nations. The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner, accounting for 16.5 percent of India’s exports and about 6.3 percent of India’s imports. U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said March 1 in New Delhi that the two governments aim to double bilateral trade in the next three years to more than $50 billion.

Another reason the Bush administration is pushing for a nuclear agreement is that the U.S. wants India to limit its energy ties with Iran.

India and Pakistan are seeking to build a $7.4 billion, 2,100-kilometer (1,305-mile) pipeline to transport natural gas from Iran, aimed at meeting the growing energy requirements of the two South Asian nations. Singh has said India is committed to the proposed gas pipeline.
 

To contact the reporters on this story:
Richard Keil in New Delhi at  [email protected];
Catherine Dodge in New Delhi at  [email protected].