We all know the line about George W. Bush and his go-it-alone manner, and how that’s isolated the U.S. and put us at a disadvantage in an ever more globalized world, etc. In reality, the President’s cooperative approach toward allies has been a distinguishing feature of his two terms. In particular, his 2005 agreement to share nuclear technology and fuel with India was a landmark event for both the U.S. and India. Perhaps Bush was even unreasonably generous in this case. As it turns out, India’s government is in a near crisis over the nuclear deal. From the Christian Science Monitor:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is battling his coalition government’s Communist allies over a long-delayed deal on nuclear power and technology that he agreed to with President Bush in 2005.
On Wednesday, Mr. Singh’s government, which is led by the Congress Party, held a make-or-break meeting with its communist allies. Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee emerged from the talks to tell reporters the two sides would meet again in a fortnight, thus making passage of the nuclear deal increasingly unlikely.
The nuclear agreement, which would give India access to US nuclear fuel and technology even though it has not signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, is at the heart of a new strategic partnership between India and the US.
It is opposed by the Communists who object to close ties with the US on ideological grounds and who argue that it will weaken India’s foreign policy and independence.
Singh, however, believes that while the issue is hardly a vote winner, the deal is of seismic importance to India, where an energy shortage threatens to curtail economic growth.
This is not just another case of Communism’s debilitating effects on progress and technology, but a symptomatic indication of a larger problem with India’s government. As the entrepreneurship of the Indian citizenry grows in leaps and bounds, the subcontinent’s government remains unable to get out of the way of success. While India currently witnesses the world’s fastest of increase in number of millionaires, its wary and fractured government fears the “invisible hand” of global trade.
The Communists are threatening to pull out of the government if the deal goes through, and the prime minister is threatening to quit if it does not. As both sides struggle to keep things together, the clock may run down on the nuclear deal completely. That is, it’s starting to seem unlikely that various international bodies will still have time to review the details of the agreement before George W. Bush leaves office. It is this sluggish pace of negotiations and calcified penchant for quibbling that make partnerships with developing nations so difficult to establish. Never mind the supposed threat posed by new free markets. It’s hard enough just to help them.
