While most foreign policy experts see a possible signing of the N-liability accord between India and the US as a turning point in the relationship between both nations, the Carnegie endowment for International Peace claims that not much may come off it - definitely not a Indo-US partnership.

The report authored by Gerorge perkovich for the Washington-based foreign policy think tank, states, "The civil nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries has not turned the relationship into a partnership, as envisioned.”

Critical of the nuclear agreement, the report says, “It has undermined US leadership credibility in trying to strengthen the global nonproliferation regime.”
It comes in the backdrop of the November 6-9 India visit of US president Barack Obama.

The report was published before India signed the convention on supplementary compensation for nuclear damage (CSC) on Wednesday in Vienna. Many experts also feel that with signing the international agreement, the stage is set for nuclear commerce. 

However, the report also cautioned that the relationship between India and the US should not be used to contain China. “Emphasising military competition with China, as some do, is counterproductive. For the foreseeable future, the United States, India, and China will operate in a triangular relationship that mixes cooperation with competition and pressure and none will be close partners of the others.”

India's democratic set-up, however, seems to be a key area for partnership with US, according to the report.  “Shared democracy is said to make the United States and India “natural allies,” but domestic politics and economics often keep each state from adopting policies that would befit a partnership,” it states.

The report also mentioned tweaking US policy in favour of India will not help Washington’s interest in long term. “India has different near-term needs and interests as a developing country than does the United States," Perkovich noted.

The report suggested that the United States can best serve its own and India's interests by ensuring that its policies toward India do not "undermine the pursuit of wider international cooperation on these global issues.”

The report also analysed that despite a healthy relationship in the last few year, there are many divergent views between two nations. “Careful analysis of US and Indian interests does not show a close convergence in some key areas, and in cases such as China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, they differ in how to pursue shared interests even when both states benefit from each other’s successes.”

In the last few months, many foreign policy experts have said that US can help India rise globally but this report has a different view. “The US policy cannot do much to help India’s rise, but it can inflict major damage on global problem-solving efforts if it defers too readily to the narrow, often mercantile demands of the current relationship,” writes Perkovich.

Read the report