Bill Clinton: US India Nuclear Deal “Should be Supported,” But Keeps Door Open to Revisions
In an apparent sign of things maybe–maybe not–to come, Bill Clinton indicated his support for the US-India nuclear deal. This is not shocking, given Hillary’s vigorous support for the US India nuclear deal. But former President Clinton did leave the door open to revisions–suggesting another grueling round of negotiations should his wife, Hillary Clinton, be elected President this November.
From Sify News:
Underlining strong bipartisan consensus for the deal in his country, he said the US has a made “a decision across parties to build strategic partnership with India in the 21st century”.
“The deal could have been stronger on the “non-proliferation side”, Clinton replied when asked what portions of the deal he would have liked to change if he were the President.
“We did not want to give the Chinese an excuse to develop nuclear weapons,” Clinton replied when asked why such a deal could not be reached during his tenure as the president between 1992 to 2000.
“The agreement should be supported. There’s a strong level of trust between India and the US. The US would be willing should Indians wish to revisit some provisions of the deal,” Clinton said when asked whether a Democratic Party administration would like to renegotiate the deal if they come to power next year.
Is Bill speaking for himself, or rather the policy of a Hillary Clinton administration? Only time will tell.
For more on Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy, read her recent policy brief in Foreign Affairs.
The Decemeber 2007 brief does touch on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT):
But we lost that opportunity by refusing to let the UN inspectors finish their work in Iraq and rushing to war instead. Moreover, we diverted vital military and financial resources from the struggle against al Qaeda and the daunting task of building a Muslim democracy in Afghanistan. At the same time, we embarked on an unprecedented course of unilateralism: refusing to pursue ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, abandoning our commitment to nuclear nonproliferation, and turning our backs on the search for peace in the Middle East. Our withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol and refusal to participate in any international effort to deal with the tremendous challenges of climate change further damaged our international standing.
Bill Clinton’s presidency will go down the history as a period, during which most dangerous and blatant proliferation to China from the US took place !! Bill Clinton promoted a policy of treating China, an authoritarian and undemocratic regime, as a strategic partner, which only shows his myopic world views, that can consign ethics and moral considerations to back burner, if there is opportunity to make money !!! The Hughes Aerospace deal with China, during his time, provided China with a quantum jump in ICBM and anti-satellite capablities. Also the great Chinese theft of the prized W-88 warhead design, also took place during Clinton’s time ! That trend still continues, and according to a high ranking Pentagon official, China today has the most powerful air defence network, thanks to technology made available by CISCO !!!
Bill Clinton will be known as a president, who was extraordinarily insensitive to India’s strategic challenges, that arises primarily from China, and islamic countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh !! Hillary Clinton coming to power would spell another dark era for India !!
India certainly would not like to see Bill Clinton commenting on bilateral issues with India, and any involvement of Mr Clinton, on the issues of the US-India nuke deal would be counter productive !!
Neel, just a stylistic suggestion: Use exclamation marks sparingly!!
Seriously, the merits of your post risk getting a little lost after your third or fourth use of exclamation marks.
How could Clinton not support a nuclear deal with India when India’s neighbors– China and Pakistan–have nuclear weapons and pose a greater future threat to the US than India?