Bush signs nuclear deal with India

Ending three decades of "isolation" for India, President Bush today signed path-changing legislation that will enable American firms to assist in the expansion of India's civil nuclear power generation - opening significant new trade doors with an emerging Asian power once at odds with the United States.

The agreement represents a reversal of decades of discord with India, which developed its nuclear weaponry outside the bounds of international treaties and long stood as a Cold War ally of the Soviet Union.

"This will represent a major sea change in the way the world works," said Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs who negotiated the deal with India. "There is a larger story here - the U.S. is making a strategic move to build a stronger relationship with India," Burns added, suggesting that after more than three decades of adversarial relations the U.S. is "bringing India in from the cold."


From: Chicago Tribune

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