Indo-US nuclear and space ties deepen

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said Tuesday a groundbreaking nuclear and high-tech agreement with the United States marked a key milestone in the relationship between the two countries.

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The United States had imposed sanctions on India's nuclear and space programmes after New Delhi carried out nuclear blasts in 1998, resulting in a freeze on exchanges on nuclear and other high-tech sectors. The decision to resume contact on nuclear safety was taken in November 2001 at a meeting between Bush and Vajpayee.

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India, which traditionally had closer ties with cold war ally Russia, has been strengthening its relations with the United States, evident in a series of joint military exercises in the last two years. India's support to the US in the global campaign against terrorism following the September 11 attack has helped bring about the transformation.

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India's 14 nuclear reactors, three of which are more than 30 years old, supply about three percent of the country's electricity. India also has missiles capable of delivering nuclear heads to nearby countries, but it is already committed to a "no first use pledge" with rival Pakistan.

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http://sify.com/news/scienceandmedicine/fullstory.php?id=13359778

OK--How much money is India receiving from the US? BushCo/PNAC is working steadily to tighten the reigns on all oil borders...Uzbekistan, India, Afghanistan...and to promote as much global geopolitical unrest as possible. Daily grows my disgust and antipathy for this corrupt administration.

The U.S. space cooperation with India is directed at China's space program, which late last year sent men into orbit. Sharing missile defense technology with India is directed at neutralizing China ICBMs.

Bush is offering space and missile defense is the Administration's carrots so as to entice India to send troops to Iraq.

If I were China, I wouldn't for a min. believe that the U.S. and India are going to "forge closer links over nuclear regulation and safety" for peaceful purposes but advancing India's nuclear weapons capability vis-a-vis China.

Although U.S. laws prohibit India from directly acquiring sensitive technology, India has also forged closer ties with Israel which has much of the desired American antimissile and nuclear technology.

Reagan did a space cooperation deal with China in 1987 following the Challenger disaster of 1986. Reagan allowed a quota of U.S. satellites to be launched on Chinese rocket boosters. China's rocket launchers (like ours) are derived from ICBMs. The possibility of technical transfers was understood and consistent with the U.S. cold war agenda of the time.

Using space technology in manner tends to backfire. Since 1986, U.S. boosters manufactures have steadily lost greater & greater shares of the commercial satellite market to overseas competitors. There has been several scandals of Chinese espionage and illegal tech transfers from Hughes to China (mostly exaggerations).