U.S. Pledges to Assist India With Technology

President Bush pledged Monday to increase cooperation with India on civilian nuclear reactors, space programs and high-technology trade.

The United States will not offer India any technologies that could boost its nuclear weapons or missile programs, or items such as high-resolution remote-imaging technologies that could be used for weapons targeting, U.S. officials said. American help will be granted in phases and be contingent on India taking counter-proliferation measures to ensure that sensitive technologies are neither diverted inside the country nor exported, the officials said.

Bush hailed the proposed cooperation as “an important milestone in transforming the relationship between the United States and India.”

In a statement from Monterrey, Mexico, where he was attending the Summit of the Americas, Bush described the United States and India as “partners in the war on terrorism and ... partners in controlling the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

A senior State Department official, briefing reporters in Washington, stressed that the announcement was not a reward to India for its recent agreement with Pakistan to hold formal talks aimed at ending the long-running dispute over Kashmir, a Himalayan territory divided between the two countries.

The agreement is an outgrowth of a November 2001 pact between Bush and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to begin a “strategic partnership.” Monday’s announcement is aimed at putting more flesh on that deal.

The United States is especially concerned about Indian nuclear safety and has offered to expand contacts between their nuclear regulatory agencies.

If India continues to expand its export-control regulations and steps up enforcement of existing regulations, the nations might at some point work together on a commercial satellite, the official suggested. The United States has repeatedly imposed sanctions on Indian companies for exporting products or technologies that could be used in weapons of mass destruction, and that will have to stop if cooperation is to proceed, he said.

Pakistan was informed in advance of the accord with India and voiced no objections, the official said. “We are offering a similar dialogue with Pakistan,” he said. “We’d like to have a conversation on strategic stability with both India and Pakistan.”