Contemporary India Lecture Series
October 13th , 2007

Plenary Session: "U.S.-India Relations"

Dr. Anupam Srivastava, Director, Asia Program, Center for International Trade and Security; Adjunct Faculty, School of Public & International Affairs, University of Georgia

Dr. Francine Frankel, Professor, Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Founding Director, Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Foreign Editor, The Hindustan Times, Delhi; Bernard Schwartz Fellow, Asia Society, New York

Baldev Raj Nayar, Professor Emeritus, Political Science, McGill University

Co-sponsored by the Center for South Asia, the Center for International Business Education and Research, UW-Madison, the Division of International Studies, UW-Madison, TATA-North America, and the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE), UW-Madison

 

From being “estranged democracies” during the cold war, India and the United States have moved to being strategic partners. Today, India is being described as a “natural partner of the United States” and there is bipartisan consensus in the US about helping India increase its outreach within the region and beyond. But nothing manifests the developing closeness more than the July 2005 Joint Statement in which the US President George W Bush described India as “a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology”, seeking to achieve “full civilian nuclear cooperation with India.” The statement also resolved to establish a “global partnership” between India and the US on a wide range of issues.
And while the civilian nuclear deal (the 123 Agreement) has become the flagship of this strategic partnership, relations have now been unfolding in various other areas also. This panel examines these changing relations with a focus on its economic, technological, and political implications.

The U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement currently under negotiation seeks to amend the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and permit American public and private entities to participate in the consolidated civilian nuclear complex that India will place under permanent safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The United States will also assist India secure an exemption from the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). This will pave the way for not just the United States, but other NSG members – principally the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Australia, Japan and Canada – to participate in the Indian civilian nuclear complex, estimated to represent business opportunities of $40 billion or higher between now and 2035.

Anupam Srivastava outlines the technical and strategic reasons that persuaded Washington and New Delhi to pursue this paradigm-shifting agreement, and a brief assessment of India’s institutional capacity to ensure that nuclear reactors, fuel, technology and material cannot be diverted to its weapons program. He concludes by identifying some key related benefits that India expects from this deal in pursuing technology-embedded partnerships with the major powers in the international system.