Nuclear deal puts US on India’s side against Pakistan

Nuclear deal puts US on India’s side against Pakistan

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: The policy shift marked by the US-India nuclear agreement weakens America’s nuclear non-proliferation policy and places Washington on India’s side in the latter’s dispute with Pakistan, a former US official said in a commentary.

Pat M Holt, former chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, writes in the Christian Science Monitor on Thursday, “Ultimately, this can affect American interests in the war on terror in Pakistan and in the nuclear crisis in North Korea. Given the spread of nuclear weapons, American non-proliferation policy must be called a failure,” she said.

Holt recalls that at a meeting in Islamabad once, a Pakistani said to her, “You have a Christian bomb. The Israelis have a Jewish bomb. Why can’t we have a Muslim bomb?” She recalls that he was not satisfied when she told him that most Americans did not see any Christianity in nuclear warfare. “Now he’s probably thinking that we are helping India get a Hindu bomb. Hindu or not, India has had nuclear weapons for a number of years; Pakistan has had them for a shorter time. Given the rivalry of these two countries over Kashmir, and their general dislike for each other, this is a dangerous combination,” she writes.

Holt argues that the national prestige which many attach to nuclear weapons is why US policy – even with respect to the peaceful uses of nuclear technology – is so important. “The US should be especially critical in cases where it’s seen to be helping one country over another, such as the US decision to share civilian nuclear technology with Pakistan’s biggest rival, India. Within days of 9/11, President Pervez Musharraf pledged Pakistan’s support in the war on terror, but how is he supposed to react now that the US appears to be shifting support to India?” she asks.

“The new US policy, intended to build up India as a regional counterweight to China, she points out, also complicates US-China relations at a time when the US needs China’s help in the region on several issues. Most important is China’s help in persuading North Korea to drop its own nuclear plans. But another issue of no small significance has to do with trade and the dollar-yuan exchange rate. If the US strengthens India vis-à-vis China, it will upset the balance of power between India and Pakistan.

“This comes after more than 30 years during which US policy has tilted towards Pakistan. Ironically, this was in recognition of Pakistani help in arranging Henry Kissinger’s secret mission to China to open the way for Nixon’s groundbreaking trip. China has also been courting India and has promised to support a permanent seat for India on an enlarged United Nations Security Council. This is more than the US has done,” she writes.