Praful Bidwai

NEW DELHI – More than 30 years after the United States walked out of a nuclear cooperation agreement with India because the latter conducted an atomic test, the two countries have agreed to resume collaboration in civilian nuclear energy. A joint-statement issued by U.S. President George W. Bush and visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh … Continue reading “US, India Open Can of Nuclear Worms”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh begins his visit to the United States next week amidst indications that India is preparing to shed the last vestiges of its earlier policy of nonalignment and enter into a stronger, indeed unprecedented, “strategic partnership” with Washington. This would see the two countries launch joint military operations in the future, especially … Continue reading “India Moves Toward a New Compact with the United States”

NEW DELHI – Once proudly nonaligned, India has turned its back on strategic policy independence through a military cooperation agreement with the United States that analysts say has taken the 5-year-old "strategic partnership" to an unprecedented plane. The new "Framework for the U.S.-India Defense Relationship" unveiled last week involves more than arms deals and envisages … Continue reading “Eyes Wide Shut, India Enters Military Alliance With US”

With the seventh Review Conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) ending in abysmal failure late last week at the United Nations, the worst fears about a tiny number of influential states holding the rest of the world hostage to their narrow interests have materialized. The conference, the second review since the NPT was indefinitely … Continue reading “World Cannot Afford Failure on the Nuclear Front”

NEW DELHI – Barely 10 days after launching a landmark bus service connecting the two divided parts of Kashmir, India and Pakistan Monday took a giant stride forward by declaring that the peace process between them is "irreversible" and will be pursued sincerely and purposefully. This is the cheerful outcome of a three-day hurricane-speed visit … Continue reading “India, Pakistan Take a Big Stride Forward”

Last week, India spelled out its emerging thinking and policy toward its neighbors in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). In a public speech, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran – the chief of the Indian diplomatic service – announced a more assertive approach, to which economic cooperation, leading to a South Asian common market, … Continue reading “India Talks Down to Its Neighbors”

North Korea has again caused shock and dismay in much of the world by declaring that it has manufactured nuclear weapons for “self-defense.” It claimed it took this step because the United States’ policy of “hostility” and said it was suspending its participation in the six-nation talks aimed at halting its nuclear weapons program. The … Continue reading “The 9th Nuclear State?”

NEW DELHI – A year after India and Pakistan launched their first serious attempt at a bilateral dialogue after their 1998 nuclear blasts and two major military crises, the prospect of success looks tantalizingly close and yet uphill in the last stretch. Both Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will have … Continue reading “Hopes for Indo-Pak Peace in ’05”

NEW DELHI – As Iran promised to meet Monday’s deadline for suspending a uranium enrichment process that could be used for making nuclear weapons – a freeze that could spare it UN Security Council sanctions – questions still remain unanswered. Does Iran already possess blueprints for a nuclear bomb and a certain quantity of enriched … Continue reading “Dubious Source for New Iran Charges”

NEW DELHI – Four years ago, they exuberantly declared they were "natural allies," being two of the world’s biggest democracies. Last year, they vowed to pursue their "strategic partnership" and their campaigns against "terror" with full gusto. And now, the United States and India have re-designated their relationship as an "evolving partnership, based on mutual … Continue reading “US and India: Unequal Allies, Uneasy Partners”