INDO-US NUCLEAR AGREEMENT: REGIONAL CONCERNS

This article analyzes the regional concerns and strategic implications of the landmark civil nuclear cooperation agreement between India and the United States, announced in 2005. It examines how the agreement, which effectively ended India's three-decade-long nuclear isolation and recognized it as a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology, was perceived by other countries in the region. The study's primary focus is on the profound concerns raised by Pakistan, which saw the deal as a major blow to strategic stability in South Asia, arguing that it would allow India to significantly expand its nuclear weapons arsenal. The research also explores the more nuanced reactions of other regional countries and the broader implications for the global non-proliferation regime. The paper argues that the Indo-US nuclear deal was a pivotal geostrategic event that fundamentally reshaped the security landscape of South Asia. The analysis concludes by assessing the long-term impact of the deal on the regional arms race and the prospects for nuclear restraint.

The 2005 Indo-US civil nuclear agreement was a historic and highly controversial deal that redefined the strategic partnership between the two countries. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the regional concerns that this agreement generated. The study begins by outlining the key provisions of the deal, which involved a separation of India's civil and military nuclear facilities and the opening of its civil facilities to international inspection in return for full access to international nuclear fuel and technology. The core of the article is an in-depth examination of the reaction from Pakistan. It details Islamabad's strong diplomatic protest, arguing that the deal was discriminatory, that it fatally undermined the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and that it would destabilize the delicate strategic balance in South Asia by providing India with a major strategic advantage. The paper analyzes Pakistan's subsequent demand for a similar deal for itself, a demand that was rejected by the United States. The second part of the study explores the broader regional and global implications. It discusses the concerns of China and the anxieties of smaller South Asian states about the consolidation of a powerful US-India strategic axis. It also delves into the sharp criticisms of the deal from the international non-proliferation community, which argued that it had created a dangerous exception for India that would weaken the global effort to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. The findings reveal that the deal, while a triumph for Indo-US relations, had a deeply polarizing effect, exacerbating regional tensions and creating new challenges for the global non-proliferation regime.