The talk of India becoming a subservient USA ally on account of the Indo -US nuclear agreement is sheer rubbish. Unshackling
India from the over three decades old nuclear and
technology apartheid under the guidelines of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), will in fact promote balance of power in Asia. China has been assisting Pakistan’s proclaimed, India specific nuclear weapon acquisition programme. Averting direct confrontation with India and facilitated by American equivocality, China has been arming Pakistan with nuclear weapons to counter India. · Under the 1976 nuclear co-operation
agreement with Pakistan, China has proliferated the wherewithal and technology to build the nuclear warheads and missiles to Islamabad. · China tried to throttle India with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. China insisted that India should be included in the list of states that should sign the treaty to bring it into force when New Delhi had already refused to accede to the treaty. · China has always attempted to prevent India from becoming a nuclear weapons power. · It is believed that Chinese personnel helped Pakistan to conduct its nuclear test as a reaction to India’s 1998 test. · Though Pakistan has no civilian nuclear programme yet China is setting up two plutonium production and reprocessing plant in Pakistan. This way China has transferred to Pakistan uranium enrichment technology, plutonium production technology and plutonium separation technology. · America all along due to its political and commercial self interest despite its stringent anti proliferation laws has either over looked China’s nuclear proliferation activities or slapped only nominal sanctions. It is apparent that the Chinese strategy of dominating Asia needs India to be kept tied down perpetually by a nuclear-armed Pakistan and Pakistan sponsored low intensity conflicts. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his address to the Combined Commanders Conference in October 2005 highlighted similar sentiments. This is viewed with concern by all and countries like Russia, UK, Japan and France and are keen to see India obtain the India specific IAEA safeguards to get the NSG waiver and move on. China when fully developed can only be balanced by a strong India. The other major powers of the world have a vital interest in this. Hence, the US nuclear agreement, India-specific IAEA safeguards and NSG waiver are taking place. India may ignore US dominance, but not the India-specific nuclear threat projected by Chinese-armed Pakistan